CONNECTIONS PLUS July/August 2014

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 4

+ the magazine for ict professionals

SDN

Explained Also: Citrix Synergy

HP Discover

Humans & Robots Formerly

Magazine

WESCO

®

Who Is Erika Violet and What Is She Doing in My Data Centre?

If You Are Installing an OM4 System, Be Sure to Ask for Erika Violet While they might look the same, OM4 fibre offers better performance than OM3. Colour remains the easiest way to identify, recognize and classify just about anything, and it has always been an integral part of our industry. Despite what you may have heard or seen, there isn’t a new lady or a new type of optical fibre in town, but there is a new colour—Erika Violet—and she has a lot to offer when it comes to identifying OM4 fibre in the data centre. Belden is one of the first to offer its OM4 fibre cable and connectivity in Erika Violet.

Just ask for her by name.

For more information contact your local WESCO branch, visit http://www.wesco.ca/branches.htm or call 1.866.WESCOCA (1.866.937.2622).

Our End-to-End Expertise. Your End-to-End Solution. ©2014 Belden Inc.

CONTENTS Fe a t u r e s

24 Bye, bye backplane A deep dive into SDN.

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28 Humans & Robots 28

The Robotics revolution is here.

Departments Editor’s Note

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Infrastructure Systems

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Networks & The Cloud 10 Mobile Movements 16 New & Noteworthy 34 The Back Page 38

35 member of:

I n the N ext Issue

>> The Mobility Issue. audited by:

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E D I TO R ’S N OT E

The Machine:

HP’s big gamble he articles in this issue cover a multitude of topics: fiber optics design, Software Defined Networks, Robots & Humans, Cisco’s InterCloud, the Internet of Things, the changing mobile workspace, the hybrid cloud, and last but not least, something called The Machine.

Google HP The Machine and page upon page of hits are shown with every conceivable media outlet from Canada’s Globe and Mail to www.cbs.com covering the announcement of the launch made at the HP Discover user conference in Las Vegas in June.

In an interview with the American television network, HP chairman and CEO Meg Whitman conceded it is a big bet, adding that “we are taking a lot of the chips, in the Las Vegas analogy, and putting them on red.”

Despite the fact, one senior executive with a competing computing firm called the concept laughable, the project is not some half-baked strategy from a company that has had its share of challenges over the last several years, but is in fact a reaction to today’s reality of more and more data being produced.

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As an example, Cisco is predicting a three-fold increase in global IP traffic by 2018 as a result of more Internet users and devices, faster broadband speeds and more video viewing.

The composition of IP traffic will shift dramatically, according to Cisco. The company added that during the forecast period, the majority of traffic will originate from devices other than personal computers for the first time in the history of the Internet. Wi-Fi traffic will exceed wired traffic and high-definition video will generate more traffic than standard definition video.

Video, the most recent Ericsson Mobility Report points out, is the largest and fastest growing segment of mobile data traffic. The company is predicting it will account for more than 50% of global mobile data traffic.

“The growth and the evolution in M2M and the 10-fold growth in mobile data traffic strengthen the emphasis on network performance, handling complexity and maximizing the user experience,” said Rima Qureshi, Ericsson’s new chief strategy officer. “This in turn puts even higher requirements across the networks and the operations and business support systems of the future.”

Which brings us back to The Machine. Martin Fink, HP’s CTO, says that because data growth will “come at us at a rate that surpasses the ability of our current infrastructure to ingest, store and analyze it, a step change in computing technology is required.

“Wouldn’t it be great if you had seemingly unlimited computer power.” Further details on the initiative can be found on p. 14. C+

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Volume 1, Issue 4 July/August 2014

Magazine

the mag azine for ict professionals

Editor Paul Barker 416-510-6752 pbarker@connectionsplus.ca Senior Publisher Maureen Levy 416-510-5111 mlevy@connectionsplus.ca Art Director Mary Peligra Production Manager Kim Collins Creative Advertising Services Mike Chimienti Circulation Manager Barbara Adelt 416-442-5600 ext. 3546 badelt@bizinfogroup.ca

Vice President Alex Papanou President Bruce Creighton Editorial Advisory Board Keith Fortune, CET, Western Regional Manager, Electron Metal AIG Inc. Henry Franc, RCDD/OSP Senior Account Manager, Professional Support at Belden Brantz Myers, B.Sc Math and Computing Science Director of Healthcare Business Development - Cisco Systems Canada Co. Peter Sharp, RCDD, AMIEE Senior Telecommunications Consultant • Giffels Associates Limited/IBI Group

Print Production Manager Phyllis Wright

Alex Smith, President • Connectivitywerx

Advertising Sales Maureen Levy 416-510-5111 mlevy@connectionsplus.ca www.connectionsplus.ca

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With the demand for fast and better network performance, fiber optic cable is making those connections in network design. Having access to these products is critical and at Nedco, we pride ourselves on having an extensive fiber offering from the industry’s leading manufacturers.

Nedco, committed to servicing the communications industry since 1911.

make world wide connections.

www.nedco.ca | 1.888.73NEDCO (63326)

I nf r a st r uc t u re S ys t e m s

Goldilocks, the fiber designer ...and the need to get it just right

By Henr y Franc

n describing the nuances of solutions design while talking to a client about their fiber requirements, I was reminded of the classic fairytale, Goldilocks and The Three Bears. From a philosophical standpoint, it is a cautionary tale of the hazards of wandering off and exploring unawares, which can be viewed as a warning against blindly choosing a strategy.

In the story, there are three possible outcomes -- the bed will be too big, the bed will be too small, or the bed will be just right. In our industry, if we wander off and explore unawares and blindly choose a strategy, the odds of getting it just right are generally against us.

Let me explain.

We often use over-simplified models and methods, relying on traditionally prescriptive standards and guidelines to achieve our goals.

In the case of traditional copper system design, that methodology has served us well. I am sure you are all well familiar with the rules – a 100 m channel with a 90 m permanent link and a maximum of 4 connectors in the channel. It works and has worked for decades because the formula has remained static.

With fiber systems, designers and installers sometimes take the same approach, looking at fiber as a direct connection from point A to point B, flipping transmit and receive, and following the application

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tables (i.e., implementing application X and using fiber Y gives you a length of Z). While it might seem simple, this is a common “bed is too small” type of un-structured approach for providing ad hoc links between the multiple point As and point Bs in your fiber network. It quickly becomes unmanageable over time, is not typically adaptable to change, and increases the spans and areas of control leading to risk that may be unacceptable.

This approach brings the risk of lack of future preparedness, lack of performance, lack of operational integrity and potential lack of regulatory compliance, not to mention pathways, spaces and management systems becoming quickly overwhelmed.

Let’s explore a more structured approach to cabling. Using a main cross-connect and intermediate cross-connect (i.e., zone distribution area) within a channel to connect from point A to point B provides a structured and “generic” system that offers more efficient use of resources.

This approach allows for patching at the main cross-connect to keep core switches separate and secure. Cabling from the main cross-connect can then be pre-installed to the intermediate crossconnect, and from there, the addition of new equipment requires only a short cable run. The approach is easier to manage, accomwww.connectionsplus.ca

Infra s t ructure Sy stems

modates change and restricts the spans of control to manage risk and avoid potential service interruptions.

This structured approach sounds like a great idea, except when minimum standards are applied. If we follow the traditional approach of using standards-compliant fiber systems (i.e., 0.75 dB insertion loss performance per connector) and traditional implementation techniques (i.e., treating each segment as an individual run and testing the segments individually), it may lead to an installed system that does not work. In this case, the “bed is too big” and we’ve likely exceeded the channel loss limit for the application.

With the ever-increasing optimization of networked connectivity in the industry to provide real business to user (B2U) convergence, network traffic and bandwidth speeds have increased, while loss limits have shrunk in unison.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. By exceeding standards, optimizing design, using the right products, and installing and testing them the right way, you can end up with a system that is a real solution – otherwise known as a “bed that is just right.”

Let’s look at a couple of examples using 10GBase-SR with 2.6 dB of channel loss limit for OM3 fiber at the maximum length of 300 m.

We will use the typical 3 dB/km loss for the fiber, the minimum standard of 0.75 dB per mated connector and typical testing practices where each segment is tested with the recognition that there is a certain amount of uncertainty in fiber testing. With EF (Encircled Flux) compliant devices the uncertainty should be +/-0.1dB, however given the presence of non-EF launch conditions (e.g., legacy testers and/or poor modal conditioning), loss uncertainty could increase to +/-0.25 dB or more.

Using the simple un-structured point-to-point topology with 2 mated connector pairs gives us 0.9 dB of cable loss and 1.5 dB in connector loss for a testing limit of 2.4 dB. That looks to be good as it’s within the 2.6 dB channel limit. However, we forgot about testing uncertainty.

Given the potential for another 0.25 dB of loss (or more given the worst case), we now have a marginal pass. I know that the standards say a marginal pass is a pass, but I’ll use the adage that “hope is not a strategy.” Clients demand certainty, and from the supply perspective, warranties, specifications and proposals imply and guarantee it.

Let’s use the same scenario in a more complex structured solution using a main cross-connect and intermediate cross-connect within the channel where we now have 5 mated connector pairs (2 at each end, 2 for the main cross-connect and 1 for the intermediate cross-connect).

We will still have 0.9 dB in cable loss, but now the connector loss jumps to 3.75 dB for a total testing limit of 4.75 dB, well beyond the threshold of 10GBase-SR. If we add in the fact that typical installations are tested at the segment level, our level of uncertainty may increase by a factor of 0.25 dB per segment.

In the worst-case example, the test values could be lower than the actual loss (due to uncertainty) and could be as much as double the channel limit for 10GBase-SR. But if we just do two little things—exceed the minimum standards for connector loss and test the entire channel rather than just individual segments—we can make drastic improvements and provide systems that are confirmed (not marginal) passes. The improved www.connectionsplus.ca

connector performance is easy to understand.

The reason that channel testing is more advantageous is that now the uncertainty is a smaller percentage of the absolute measurement, providing significantly more confidence in the test results.

We can further increase our solution flexibility by embracing factory-terminated connectors such as MPOs, cassettes or spliced pigtails that can cut the effect of connector loss in half (or better).

For example, we can now easily achieve factory-terminated LC connectors with a maximum loss of 0.25 dB per connector for OM3. By testing the whole channel in addition to the segments (as we install them, which is still good practice), we can also keep the uncertainty within tolerable levels.

Let’s look at the same scenario again using the 0.25 dB loss per connector and testing the whole channel. The simple 2-connector link now has a testing limit of 1.4 dB (0.9 dB for the cable and 0.5 dB for the connectors), which is well below the 2.6 dB threshold. But what if we want a structured cabling system like the 5-connector model with the main cross connect and interconnect? We then end up with a testing limit of 2.15 dB. By testing the whole channel, even with uncertainty, we are still well within the threshold and can give a convincing and confirmed pass.

Continued on page 8

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July/August 2014

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I nf r a st r uc t u re S ys t e m s

OIF and ONF team up on Transport SDN demonstration he Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) have joined forces to tackle Transport Software Defined Networking (Transport SDN). The two groups say they are collaborating throughout 2014 on a global Transport SDN demonstration in several carrier-hosted labs.

“We expect SDN, in tandem with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), to shape the future of telecommunications networks,” said Vishnu Shukla, of Verizon and OIF president.

The testing is scheduled to begin in late August in a number of global carrier labs.

The two groups say they will seek to make the network more programmable to enable a new era of dynamic services.

“One such application is bandwidth-on-demand services that effectively address inter-enterprise bandwidth peaks such as data transfer between data centers, while optimizing precious network resources,” the two said in a release.

“Additional goals are to increase network efficiency and agility, decrease OpEx, maximize revenue generation, and improve ROI.” The OIF bills itself as the “first industry group to unite representatives from data and optical networking disciplines, including many of the world’s largest carriers, component manufacturers and system vendors.”

Launched in 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Mi-

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crosoft, Verizon, and Yahoo!, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is a nonprofit organization with more than 140 members whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of open SDN.

F6 Networks, Ciena collaborate on NB expansion F6 Networks is leveraging Ciena’s converged packet optical and packet networking offerings to deliver improved broadband connectivity between Saint John and Fredericton, N.B. With the new 100G network, F6 Networks says it is addressing growing demand for broadband connectivity throughout the province. The company is also currently building an open access, dark fiber network that provides broadband connectivity between Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern U.S. for public sector organizations, private enterprises, Internet services providers and wireless carriers.

It says the expansion will allow it to respond to new business opportunities in areas such as cloud connectivity and Ethernet business services, or wholesale mobile backhaul and dark fiber services.

It recently announced collaboration with CANARIE, Canada’s national research and education network, to support network-enabled research at post-secondary institutions throughout northern New Brunswick.

Goldilocks – continued from page 7

And if we look at OM4 fiber, we have succeeded in achieving even more headroom at 0.15 dB for LC connectors. If we look at the same 5-connector model in a 10GBase-SR scenario with 2.9 dB of channel limit for OM4 fiber at the maximum length of 400 m, we end up with a maximum testing limit of just 1.95 dB – nearly a full dB below the threshold.

My word of caution is to not be a “Goldilocks” that wanders off and explores the unawares of fiber design. If you look at your surroundings, understand the requirements of the system from both a network and operational perspective, and exceed the standards and industry practices, you can be sure of your fiber system. When you take this approach, fiber systems will be “just right” and clients will be satisfied and secure. And the fiber network will live happily ever after…

Henry Franc, RCDD, OSP, is a premises specialist for Belden and also serves as the Chair of the TIA-TR42.3 Pathways and Spaces Engineering Sub-committee. Franc specializes in large and/or complex projects. He has been involved with the industry for more than 20 years and is an active member of BICSI and TIA, participating in telecommunications infrastructure standards development. His work within international standards crosses multiple technologies and industry verticals.

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The above infographic is part of a series created by Commscope on the Evolution of the Broadband Network. www.connectionsplus.ca

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STANDARDS

New standard has an educated bent to it

By Paul Kish

or this issue’s column, I wanted to provide an overview of the new ANSI/TIA-4966 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Educational Facilities that was published in May. It specifies telecommunications infrastructure requirements that apply for educational facilities including cabling, cabling topologies, cabling distances, pathways and spaces. This standard is generally in accordance with ANSI/TIA-568-C.0 for generic cabling and ANSI/TIA-568-C.1 for commercial building cabling. However, it provides some additional requirements and guidance that are specific to the design of educational facilities.

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Backbone Cabling Backbone cabling lengths are dependent upon the application and the type of media chosen. For more information on the applications supported and the maximum distances for different types of media, see Annex D of ANSI/TIA568-C.0 Standard.

ANSI/TIA-4966 recognizes the same type of media for backbone cabling as ANSI/TIA-568-C.0 for generic cabling, with some additional recommendations as follows: • Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling - Category 6A is recommended for new installations.

• Multimode Optical Fiber Cabling - OM4 is recommended for new installations.

It is noted that multiple media types may be needed to satisfy all user requirements

Horizontal Cabling The maximum horizontal length shall be 90 metres for balanced twisted-pair cabling and should be 90 metres for optical fiber cabling, except for some cases where the maximum horizontal cabling length for optical fiber may be increased based on the application and specific media chosen (see ANSI/TIA-568-C.0).

ANSI/TIA-4966 recognizes the same type of media for horizontal cabling as ANSI/TIA-568-C.0 for generic cabling, with some additional recommendations as follows: • Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling - Category 6A is recommended for new installations.

• Multimode Optical Fiber Cabling - OM3 or OM4 is recommended for new installations. www.connectionsplus.ca

Each balanced twisted-pair cable in the work area shall be terminated in an eight-position modular jack.

For new installations, the LC connector (ANSI/TIA-60410-B) should be used where one or two fibers are used to make a connection at the equipment outlet.

The MPO connector (ANSI/TIA-604-5-D) should be used where more than two fibers are used to make a single connection at the equipment outlet.

Both the Multi-user Telecommunications Outlet Assembly (MUTOA) and Consolidation Point (CP), when used, should be limited to serving a maximum of 12 work areas and shall be located in fully accessible, permanent locations (e.g., building columns, permanent walls) and shall not be located in any obstructed area.

• MUTOA shall not be located in ceiling spaces and shall not be installed in furniture unless that unit of furniture is permanently secured to the building structure • CPs may be located in a suspended ceiling space or access floor space provided that the space is accessible without moving building fixtures, equipment, or heavy furniture, and without disturbing building occupants. In all cases, the use of consolidation points in plenum spaces used for environmental air shall conform to applicable building codes.

Educational buildings may house a variety of tenants such as a health clinic, coffee shops, food concessions, book stores, etc. These multi-tenant building spaces may be served from a common equipment room and common telecommunications room or alternatively, if the tenant spaces occupy a small portion of the building, dedicated pathways should be provided for the tenant spaces.

ANSI/TIA-4966 provides specific recommendations on the density of Wireless Access Points (WAPs) for typical buildings, residence halls and places of assembly such as large classrooms, cafeterias and gymnasiums.

For places of assembly, the number of WAPs increases with the expected occupancy ranging from 1 WAP per 25 people to 21 WAPs per 500 people. Finally, ANSI/TIA-4966 provides an informative Annex A that illustrates typical classroom layouts including a typical computer lab and science lab.

The ANSI/TIA-4966 Standards is a needed addition to the TIA series of Premises Standards that include commercial buildings, industrial facilities and healthcare.

July/August 2014

Paul Kish is Director, Systems and Standards at Belden.

The information presented is the author’s view and is not official TIA correspondence.

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Internet of everything already here:

Cisco’s Chambers

By Dave Webb Cisco CEO John Chambers, shown while making his keynote speech at the company’s recent user conference in San Francisco, is predicting a “brutal, brutal consolidation” in many industries, but particularly in IT. He believes only one-third of companies in this sector will survive the next 10 years.

San Francisco, Calif. – The Internet of everything is not coming soon. It is already here.

That was the message of Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers in his keynote at the networking giant’s Cisco Live user conference in May. Throughout the four-day conference, the company produced a number of clients to bolster its claim that its IoE vision – bringing together data, processes, people and things for an estimated $19 trillion in business value – is becoming a reality.

Cisco executives also fleshed out the company’s “Intercloud” strategy – the delivery of applications across on-premise, managed, hosted and private and public cloud environments – first announced in March of this year, and its application-centric infrastructure (ACI) play, the extension of Cisco’s software-defined networking (SDN) strategy.

Chambers was joined by Royal Dutch Shell CIO Alan Matula and Weather Co. CIO Bryson Koehler to discuss how the companies are incorporating data from sensors – Internet-connected “things” – and processing power to drive business value.

“Weather was the original Big Data problem,” Koehler said, and it can have an economic impact of one-third of a nation’s gross domestic product. Weather Co. (parent company of The Weather Channel) 10

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has the world’s most used application programming interface (API), collecting data from 2.3 billion forecast points and crowdsourced data from 25,000 home-based weather stations.

Crunching that data makes Weather Co. the most accurate forecaster in the world, and it’s still wrong 20-25% of the time.

“There are not many industries that publish their mistakes to the world every day,” he said. “You have to be brave to be wrong that often.”

Shell’s Matula said while the company’s traditional oil exploration activities involved perhaps a half-dozen drills per site, looking for oil in fields of shale requires hundreds of drills, all reporting sensor data. Decisions on drilling angles have to be processed at the edge of the network – so-called “fog” computing, as in clouds close to the ground.

ACI and Cisco’s Intercloud model can allow that sort of workload mobility, said Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s Winnipeg-born president of development and sales. ACI applies a policy to workloads – security profile, quality-of-service requirements, data sovereignty rules, etc. – while Cisco’s Intercloud fabric allows virtual and bare-metal workloads to move to the most appropriate computing environment, whether it’s on-premise, in a private cloud, in Cisco’s own public cloud environment or that of one of its partners, which include cloud providers, independent software vendors and intellectual property holders for applications.

“We are going to build some of (the Intercloud), but we are not going to build all of it,” Lloyd said.

Several partners who will help deliver that Intercloud were announced at the conference, including Accenture, VCE, NetApp and Johnson Controls. The first co-branded offerings with Dimension Data will be available by the fall, said Steve Nola, CEO of Dimension Data’s cloud solutions business unit.

Contrary to criticism that Cisco was late to the game with a cloud www.connectionsplus.ca

Ne t wo r ks & The Cloud

There were an assortment of IoT exhibits and demonstrations at Cisco Live, among them a model of a connected train (top right). Meanwhile, Rob Lloyd (left), the company’s president of development and sales, said Cisco will be building some of of the Intercloud, defined by Wikipedia as a “global cloud of clouds,” but not all of it. Among those involved are Accenture, VCE, Dimension Data, NetApp and Johnson Controls.

strategy, Chambers said Cisco’s ahead of the market.

“We are not moving fast enough,” Chamber said. “We are pulling ahead of our peers, but we have to accelerate that.”

Later, at a media Q&A session, Chambers outlined some of the markets embracing the IoE vision: Germany’s automotive industry; the consumer automation industry in Japan; the U.S. sports entertainment and healthcare industries; and smart cities including Barcelona and Hamburg. At the conference, Kansas City, Mo. mayor Sly James announced that the city would build out a city-wide network and offer entrepreneurs “a living, breathing client – the city of Kansas City – to test their solutions.” The city has specific pilots planned in the areas of interactive kiosks, mobile applications, smart street lighting and video surveillance.

Also at Cisco Live: • Chambers forecast a “brutal, brutal consolidation” in industry in general, but particularly in IT. Only a third of companies will survive the next 25 years, he predicted. In IT, only a third will survive the next 10 years.

• Cisco launched two videoconferencing endpoints for desktop collaboration. The 24-inch DX80 and the 14-inch DX70 are Androidbased all-in-one touchscreen devices that support full HD video.

According to senior vice-president and general manager of Cisco’s collaboration group, Ryan Trollope, the consolidation of personal devices – PDA, cell phone, MP3 player, digital camera – into the single form factor of a smart phone was the inspiration to do the same for desktop collaboration.

“When you go into the workplace, it feels like you are turning back the technology clock 10 years,” Trollope said. Pulling together the necessary standalone peripherals for videoconferencing creates a complexity “that leads to things breaking and not working.”

Designed for open work spaces, the endpoints’ four integrated microphones dynamically mute according to the position of the user on screen to minimize background noise. They can also be paired with a smart phone for contact management.

• Also on the collaboration front, Cisco announced a Collaborawww.connectionsplus.ca

Cisco predicts IP traffic to rise nearly three-fold by 2018 According to the CiscoVisual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption for 2013 to 2018, global Internet Protocol (IP) traffic will increase nearly three-fold over the next four years due to more Internet users and devices, faster broadband speeds and more video viewing.

Global IP traffic for fixed and mobile connections is expected to reach an annual run rate of 1.6 zettabytes – more than one and a half trillion gigabytes per year by 2018. The projected annual IP traffic for 2018 will be greater than all IP traffic that has been generated globally from 1984 - 2013 (1.3 zettabytes).

According to Cisco, the composition of IP traffic will shift dramatically in the coming few years. During the forecast period, the majority of traffic will originate from devices other than personal computers (PCs) for the first time in the history of the Internet. Wi-Fi traffic will exceed wired traffic for the first time and high-definition (HD) video will generate more traffic than standard definition (SD) video.

In addition, by 2018 there will be nearly as many machine-tomachine (M2M) connections as there are people on earth. Smart cars will have nearly four M2M modules per car.

In Canada, IP traffic will grow two-fold from 2013 to 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 19%.

Global IP traffic is expected to reach 132 exabytes per month by 2018, which is the equivalent to: • 8.8 billion screens streaming the FIFA World Cup final game in Ultra-HD/4K at the same time • 5.5 billion people binge-watching “Game of Thrones” Season 4 via video-on-demand in HD or 1.5 billion watching in Ultra-HD/4K • 4.5 trillion YouTube clips; and • 940 quadrillion text messages.

tion Meeting Room service, a personal, cloud-based meeting space in the cloud. Each user receives a unique URL that can be sent to invite users to join a videconference from their standards-based video endpoints or software clients. Up to 500 people can join a conference. The service is built on Cisco WebEx cloud infrastructure, with 19 data centres worldwide.

• Cisco closed its acquisition of malware analysis and threat intelligence firm ThreatGrid. Terms of the sale were not discussed.

ThreatGrid capabilities will be integrated with those of recently acquired SourceFire in Cisco’s Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) suite.

July/August 2014

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N et w o r ks & T h e C l o u d

EMC launch designed to move IT to ‘hybrid cloud’

Organizations harnessing the four IT megatrends of social, cloud, mobile and big data to build new applications are redefining their industries, said David Goulden at the launch in London.

Jeremy Burton pointed out that “customers are dealing with the reality and challenges of managing a variety of workloads – while supporting new demands to build new applications, both on-premise and in the public cloud. “

EMC Corp. chose London as the venue for a major new product launch in early July across its Flash, enterprise storage and Scale-Out NAS portfolios, which it said collectively will help IT organizations “accelerate their journey to the hybrid cloud.

“Over the last few years, organizations that have harnessed the megatrends of social, cloud, mobile and big data to build new applications have been able to transform their industries,” the company said in a release.

“The recipe for IT transformation is conceptually simple – invest in new applications by reducing investment in the existing application estate.

“However, the reality is that there is 29% annual data growth in existing application workloads, a continued 58% “drag” incurred by supporting infrastructure applications on business applications, and the ever escalating need for faster performance for specific application workloads.

Announced were: • XtremIO 3.0, whih contains new features and configurations, ecosystem integrations, and business programs for EMC XtremIO all-flash arrays. Collectively, these offer more scale, more capabilities, and more support for consolidated, virtualized, and performance-hungry workloads, EMC said.

• The VMAX3 Family, which transforms VMAX from enterprise 12

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storage to an enterprise data service platform.

• A major upgrade to EMC Isilon OneFS, new Isilon platforms and products that revolve around the first enterprise-grade, scale-out Data Lake.

• The availability of EMC ViPR 2.0 and EMC ViPR SRM 3.5.

• The availability of the EMC ECS Appliance, a hyperscale storage infrastructure designed for the data centre. EMC has shipped the first ECS Appliance, a single system totaling three Petabytes, to The Vatican Library.

David Goulden, CEO, EMC Information Infrastructure, said organizations harnessing the four IT megatrends of social, cloud, mobile and big data to build new applications are redefining their industries.

He added that IT must drive cost efficiencies to fund the new applications businesses are asking for.

Jeremy Burton, president, EMC products, marketing & solutions, said organizations dealing with the reality and challenges of managing a variety of workloads, while supporting new demands to build new applications, both on-premise and in the public cloud.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

The new offerings, he added, provide the foundation needed for “customers to manage existing and new application estates and accelerate their journey to the hybrid cloud.” www.connectionsplus.ca

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N et w o r ks & T h e C l o u d

The Making Of The Machine HP set to invest billions in new computing architecture

By Paul Barker Las Vegas, Nev. – Meg Whitman certainly chose the right venue to announce what could end up easily being the largest corporate gamble she and the company she heads has ever made.

The CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), who was hired in 2010 to resurrect an organization that at the time was in such complete and utter turmoil its board had burned through three CEOs in two years, has since slashed more than 50,000 employees and survived a shareholder lawsuit resulting from the questionable US$10 billion acquisition of U.K. software vendor Autonomy that went awry. Whitman, who has also overhauled the corporate culture, is betting big time on something called The Machine in this the 75th year of the company’s existence.

Speaking here in June at the HP Discover 2014 user conference, Whitman, accompanied on stage during a keynote speech by Martin Fink, the company’s chief technology officer, director of HP labs and general manager of its cloud business unit, said the code-name for a completely new computing architecture, changes everything.

“It is a continuum, a new approach to manage the distributed world,” she said. “It is the future of technology.”

Whitman is so sure of its value she has also made it a top R&D priority and plans to invest billions of dollars into the initiative if needed.

It was left up to Fink, a Canadian who joined HP in 1985 after graduating from Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont., to outline the more salient details of the project including the name itself.

“Why do we call it The Machine? When we first started develop14

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Martin Fink (above) discusses The Machine. HP CEO Meg Whitman, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (right) and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman are shown during a discussion on technology: today, tomorrow and beyond.

ing it, we wanted to be very careful not to call it a server, workstation, PC, device or phone, because it actually encompasses all of those things. As we were waiting for Marketing to come up with a cool code name for the project, we started calling it The Machine – and the name stuck.”

The Machine, said Fink is made up of: • A task-specific, system-on-chip ecosystem that achieves “quantum leaps” in computer performance and power efficiency when compared to traditional computing architectures that at their core, have not changed in more than 60 years. There is the CPU, main memory, and some sort of IO, typically storage and networking.

• New photonic interconnects that will eventually supplant the traditional copper cables currently in use.

• Traditional memory hierarchy working memory and mass storage with a single, universal memory.

According to Fink, toward the end of this decade, data growth will come at a rate that surpasses the ability of a current infrastructure to ingest, store and analyze. As a result, he added, a steep change in computing technology is required.

In his keynote presentation he said that a new operating system is being created from the “ground up” and that it will enter public beta in 2017 and be released the following year.

Developing The Machine, he wrote in blog, not only means “building the hardware. But we are also investing in developing the software that will support it – the data algorithms, the operating systems, the security platform and the tools required to manage millions of compute nodes from servers and data centres to the smart sensors that will make up the Internet of Things.”

Last year, in another blog, he discussed the need to “think differently about the future of IT. “These days, enterprises commonly www.connectionsplus.ca

Ne t wo r ks & The Cloud

handle petabytes or more of data and increasing amounts of unstructured data. Tomorrow it will be exabytes. The sheer amount of computing horsepower required to handle all that data is enormous, taking a financial, logistical and environmental toll on organizations.

“If you looked at the existing public cloud as a country, it would be the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the world. For context, reducing public cloud electricity consumption in half would be enough to power the United Kingdom. This current path is unsustainable, as we are barely scratching the surface of the deluge of data that’s projected to come at us in the coming years. This reality requires transformative thinking that addresses energy consumption and other IT challenges.”

That this is no longer an organization in disarray was evident with the launch of a multitude of products and services at HP Discover, which the company said act as a way to “bridge” current and future data centre technologies.

“Big data, mobility, security and cloud computing are forcing organizations to rethink their approach to technology, causing them to invest heavily in IT infrastructure,” HP said in release. “Gartner estimates that data centre hardware spending from new types of products and big data deployments will reach US$9.4 billion this year.”

Announced were: • New encryption capabilities as well as information protection and control systems it says help “safeguard data throughout its en-

tire life cycle.” The HP Atalla offerings “support data whether it’s at rest, in motion or in use -- across cloud, on-premises and mobile environments—to ensure continuous protection of an organization’s most sensitive information,” the company said in a release.

• The launch of the HP Apollo line of high-performance computing (HPC) systems, the company said are capable of delivering up to four times the performance of standard rack servers, while using less space and energy. “Demand for HPC applications across industries is growing rapidly, and today’s data centres are ill-equipped to handle the extensive space, power and infrastructure necessary to run the required level of processing power,” said Antonio Neri, senior vice present and general manager of servers at HP. • Enhancements to the all-flash HP 3PAR StoreServe 7450 Storage array. IDC forecasts that by 2016 the market for all-flash storage arrays will increase to US$1.6 billion, representing a 59% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 2012-2016 forecast period.

• The HP Virtual Cloud Networking (VCN) SDN Application, which is designed to simplify the transition to a software-defined data centre.

• New backup, recovery and archive offerings that allow organizations to protect increasing volumes of data, which IDC will reach monumental levels by 2020. Growing at 40% annually, the research firm is estimating that the amount of data created and copied each year by then will reach 44 zettabytes.

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M o bile M ovemen t s

New workspace takes centre stage at Citrix Synergy

By Denise Deveau The mobile workforce is no longer the world of the road warrior executives logging in to their enterprise apps from airports, meeting rooms and hotels. Rather, the new buzzword is the mobile workspace: a movable feast of enterprise apps that can be digested anywhere, any time on any device.

At least that was the overarching message at Citrix Synergy Los Angeles 2014, where the talk was all about the newly evolving mobile workspace. In their words, we are talking about a flexible consumption delivery model based on a reference architecture that enables a broad integration of thousands of use cases, according to Sudhakar Ramakrishna, SVP enterprise and service provider division for Citrix based in Santa Clara, Calif.

Ultimately the mobile workspace of the near future will mean some serious changes in perspective. For example, while the cloud was originally about storing and accessing apps, it is now transitioning to a platform for aggregating, brokering and delivering services in a data fabric context that is both device and location independent.

“In order to do that, the (new) architecture has to be ageless and evolving,” said Ramakrishna. “This could entail hybrid deployment models that are extensible through multiple partners. Today everything must be looked at as a platform that can be managed and monitored from a single user interface. In other words, we’re talking about platformstyle innovation.”

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The Internet of Things can also be re-envisioned as the Internet of apps, where whatever data comes in will be aggregated, managed and provisioned by IT. This may be achieved through traditional or virtual data centre models, or completely cloud-based through three or four mega-cloud providers at the network layer.

The only thing missing is the infrastructure that allows the scalability needed for sharing technologies, said Matt Morgan, vice president corporate product marketing for Citrix. “IT has been trying to figure out how to deal with mobility and going to market with point solutions for point problems. Access over broadband tended to be purpose built for specific apps and required multiple logins for multiple tenants. A single solution would give unbelievable flexibility and power because it can automate workflow and allow rich access through a common user interface at less cost.”

The next generation media providers have figured this out. Citrix among others in evolving to a Netflix type experience where users have access to the ‘channel’, choose what they want to ‘watch’, and get the full blown app experience.

This flexibility is something enterprises are keen to embrace, said Michael Murphy, vice president and country manager for Citrix Canada. He notes that any discussions today with customers revolve around accessing apps and data from somewhere other than corporate LANs. “Much will depend on the scalability needed to deliver capacity on demand.”

While enterprises may say remote access to desktop exists today, the reality is it does not serve the mobile world well, Murphy said. www.connectionsplus.ca

M o bile Movemen ts

Brad Petersen, the firm’s senior director of marketing, makes a point on stage during a keynote with CMO Daheb and Catherine Courage, senior vice president of customer experience at Citrix. Michael Murphy, vice president and country manager for Citrix Canada, noted that any discussions today with customers revolve around accessing apps and data from somewhere other than corporate LANs. “Much will depend on the scalability needed to deliver capacity on demand,” he said.

Citrix chief marketing officer Steve Daheb (left) delivered a keynote presentation at the conference as did company CEO Mark Templeton (above) who discussed the concept of moveability and how it is affecting the workforce, workplace and workflow.

“The original paradigm for remote access was dialing in from home to access a PC sitting on your desk. In a truly mobile model users can access virtual hosted desktops (shared or pooled) that could be on a desk to or spinning on disks in a data centre with hundreds or thousands of others.”

Murphy projects that while the data centre will continue to exist “as is” for the most part, the significant change will be seen as companies prepare their applications for mobile access, a feat that will require a very different model.

Customers are not struggling with the compute or access parts, although there is more emphasis on security, access and performance.

The conversations are more about how to take my apps and mobilize them. “Most organizations have thousands of apps that aren’t mobilized yet, and simply don’t know where to start,” Murphy said.

To that end, Citrix has launched a migration toolkit for its application virtualization product Citrix XenApp that helps organizations quickly mobilize their apps, including legacy ones. “Apps are the glue that ties the whole thing from end to end. It’s not the network anymore,” Murphy said. “That simply becomes the broker or conduit that provides the access and delivery mechanism whether the apps sit on or off premises. In fact it doesn’t matter where they are: they can be virtualized, Windows-based, rewritten for Android or iOS, or software as a service.”

The end result will be a completely customized desktop that can be controlled through storefronts set up by user groups, individuals or corporate apps. Management for its part is in charge of monitoring performance, who gets access to what, authentication and service management.

As customers get on board in response to the BYOD groundswell, www.connectionsplus.ca

the positive aspect is the fact that nobody is starting from scratch.

“There’s a big installed base out there,” Murphy said. “The next step is to mobilize what they’re already doing to support access to apps from the corporate network or remote PC or laptop and take it to iOS, Android or other platform.”

IBM has apps in-store When asked about the mobilization conversations these days, Warren Tomlin, partner North American Labs leader for IBM Canada in Toronto says the hottest area is the B2E (business-to-enterprise) market. “That is what I am getting the most calls for. In fact, a lot of B2E is being informed by work that has been done on the B2C side.”

IBM has been developing its own store of downloadable mobile apps to offer enterprise functionality in the field. That’s a departure from even two years ago, when Tomlin says mobilization was all about porting a web experience to a mobile device.

The app approach is ideal since it offers infinite advantages over web-based channels, including connectivity, the ability to push notifications and geofencing based on an employee’s location. “These are very, very powerful enabling tools on the employee side,” Tomlin says.

He cites recent stats from Android that indicate mobile browsing represents only about 20% of all traffic, while 80% is apps. “The [network] pipe is becoming more and more commoditized and invisible to the user. We’re also seeing some very interesting things from guys like Apple who are testing out mesh networking with their latest operating system.”

If two years ago the talk was about porting web-based apps, two years from now, people won’t be talking mobile at all, he contends.

“With this massive consolidation, it will just be the way we work.”

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Mo b i l e Mo v e m e n t s

CEOs need to get it when it comes to digital:

Accenture

stablished Canadian businesses can improve competitiveness by turning their strong commitment to digital technologies into more effective digital business models, according to a new Accenture report.

The research study, “CEO Briefing 2014 – The Global Agenda: Competing in a Digital World,” reveals that Canadian business leaders understand the connection between digital business models and growth better than many of their global counterparts, but have yet to fully anchor their global digital strategy at the level of the CEO. The research includes insights from senior Canadian executives surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The majority of Canadian executives (51%) say that their digital investments are focused primarily on driving growth opportunities rather than on achieving efficiencies, versus only 31% of the executives surveyed outside Canada.

According to Accenture, this suggests that Canadian businesses are more growth oriented with their digital investments than those in any other mature economy.

Even so, responsibility for digital innovation in Canadian enterprises is most likely to rest with a technology role, with 35% citing the CIO and 27% the CTO. Less than a quarter of Canadian respondents (23%) say responsibility for digital innovation rests with the CEO. That differs from responses of business executives in the global sample, of which 35% say the CEO is most commonly the leader of the digital agenda. Further, nearly four in 10 Canadian executives say that one of the most significant challenges they face when imple-

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menting digital initiatives is the lack of senior executive support.

“Our research suggests that Canadian business leaders appear more committed to implementing digital technologies than their counterparts elsewhere and they are more likely to see digital business models not merely enabling greater efficiencies, but driving growth opportunities,” said Stephen Gardiner, Canada managing director, strategy and digital at Accenture. “But they need to do more to make the digital agenda integral to the CEO’s growth strategy if they are to use it to break into new markets, form new cross sector partnerships or create entirely new product and service portfolios.”

Canadian business leaders are showing strong enthusiasm about the role that digital transformation will play in improving business performance, according to the study. They are more likely than their counterparts in the U.S. and other major markets to consider all of the major digital technologies important to their company in 2014, including data analytics (cited by 73%), mobile (77%), social media (64%), machine-to-machine communication (65%), e-commerce (82%) and cloud computing (65%).

The study also reveals that Canadian executives are optimistic about the economic and business outlook in 2014 compared to respondents elsewhere. 89% are positive about the prospects for their company in 2014 compared to 78% of U.S. respondents and 76% of the global sample. Against this backdrop; however, Canadian companies appear less likely than their U.S. and global peers to increase investment in research and development in 2014. 71% of Canadian respondents indicated that such investment will increase this year, compared to 80% of global respondents and 87% of those in the U.S. “Optimism about business prospects in the short term will not make Canadian business immune from the potential disruption to traditional industry sectors caused by new technologies and start-ups,” said Gardiner. “To avoid the gap between optimism and challenges posed by new competitors, established local companies in a range of traditional sectors should proactively explore new business models to disrupt their markets, before they are disrupted themselves.”

At a recent Toronto Region Board of Trade Michael Denham, senior managing director, Accenture Canada, spoke about the growing concerns around Canadian businesses’ need to adopt digital technology in their business strategy.

“Are our companies ahead of the curve?” he asked. “We are not convinced. In fact, we are concerned. What we have found in our research is something we have taken to calling an optimism gap.

“Canadian executives may be confident. They may understand the inherent importance and value of digital technologies. However, with so much change occurring so quickly, we believe that this optimism needs to be tempered.

“Simply put, there is a lot of work yet to be done. And the longer we delay, the more vulnerable we become.” www.connectionsplus.ca

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Mo b i l e Mo v e m e n t s

Next year, the total number of mobile subscriptions will exceed the world’s population.

Ericsson: Global 4G/LTE divide will be wide in 2019 The latest Ericsson Mobility Report reveals for the first time that the number of active cellular M2M devices will increase three to four times by 2019, from 200 million at the end of 2013. While the majority of cellular M2M devices today are still GSM-only, that is expected to shift by 2016 when 3G/4G will represent the majority of active cellular M2M subscriptions.

“We see cellular M2M taking off,” said Rima Qureshi, Ericsson’s new chief strategy officer, who took over recently from Douglas Gilstrap. “Over time, cellular M2M services and applications related to, for example, intelligent transport systems, will require very short latency in order to be efficient. By 2019 we estimate that more than 20% of the active cellular M2M devices will be connected to LTE subscriptions. We also see new device-to-device and M2M applications as a key focus of 5G networks.”

2015: subscriptions surpass global population Next year, the total number of mobile subscriptions will exceed the world’s population. Mobile subscriptions have grown by 7% year-over-year, with 120 million net additions in Q1 alone. Mobile broadband subscriptions also continue to grow and will reach 7.6 billion by the end of 2019, representing more than 80 percent of total mobile subscriptions.

2016: smartphones outnumber basic mobiles In two years’ time, in 2016, the number of smartphone subscriptions 20

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will exceed those for basic phones and by 2019 the number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to reach 5.6 billion. In Europe, the number of smartphone subscriptions will reach about 765 million in 2019 and thereby exceed the population number.

Upwards of 65% of all phones sold in Q1 2014 were smartphones.

Compared to today, a smartphone user in 2019 is expected to consume almost four times the amount of mobile data per month. This contributes to the 10-fold growth prediction in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019, the report noted.

“The growth and the evolution in M2M and the 10-fold growth in mobile data traffic strengthen the emphasis on network performance, handling complexity and maximizing the user experience,” Qureshi said.

“This in turn puts even higher requirements across the networks and the operations and business support systems of the future.”

In 2019, LTE population coverage in Europe will be around 80 percent, but Europe will only see LTE subscription penetration of 30 percent compared to 85 percent in North America the same year. Even within Europe there will be large differences between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe.

Population coverage for LTE in North East Asia is expected to be 95% by 2019, with LTE penetration levels at 45%.

By the same year, China is expected to reach over 700 million LTE subscriptions, representing more than 25% of total global subscriptions for LTE. www.connectionsplus.ca

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Mo b i l e Mo v e m e n t s

CDW survey reveals 20% of firms polled

hit by cyber attacks the firm said that by 2017, 75% of mobile security breaches will be the result of mobile application misconfiguration.

“Mobile security breaches are — and will continue to be — the result of misconfiguration and misuse on an app level, rather than the outcome of deeply technical attacks on mobile devices,” said Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner. “A classic example of misconfiguration is the misuse of personal cloud services through apps residing on smartphones and tablets. When used to convey enterprise data, these apps lead to data leaks that the organization remains unaware of for the majority of devices.”

With the number of smartphones and tablets on the increase, and a decrease in traditional PC sales, attacks on mobile devices are maturing. By 2017, Gartner predicts that the focus of endpoint breaches will shift to tablets and smartphones.

To do significant damage in the mobile world, malware needs to act on devices that have been altered at an administrative level.

“The most obvious platform compromises of this nature are ‘jailbreaking’ on iOS or ‘rooting’ on Android devices,” said Zumerle.

“They escalate the user’s privileges on the device, effectively turning a user into an administrator.”

CDW Canada, a provider of technology offerings for Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors, has unveiled results of a customer survey that found nearly 20% of Canadian businesses were attacked by cybercriminals in the past 12 months.

The survey asked if respondents had experienced security breaches in the past year and what their primary concerns around security were.

Upwards of 38% said they treated cybercrime as a major concern within their organization. In addition, 32% cited lack of employee training for security breaches.

Organizations’ primary security concern was data theft, cited by 34% of respondents, followed by information on personal and mobile devices at 25%.

“IT security is clearly a major issue for Canadian organizations,” said Daniel Reio, director of marketing for CDW Canada. “A large number of companies have experienced cyber attacks in the past year and as firms become more mobile, they increase the number of devices and data validation points they need to manage, heightening their risks.

CDW Canada’s survey was conducted at its annual Business Technology Expo (BTEX) customer event. Further information is available at www.cdw.ca.

Gartner Inc., meanwhile, recently stated that nearly 2.2 billion smartphones and tablets will be sold to end users in 2014.

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ITU Telecom World 2014 agenda announced

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Forum discussions at the upcoming ITU Telecom World 2014 event in Doha, Qatar, will delve deep into the driving forces behind the ongoing radical transformation of the ICT industry, exploring three major future scenarios and how they will impact our businesses and lives: Disruption: Will the ICT sector suffer further disruption? Or will it be the disrupting force for others such as broadcasting? How might sector convergence take shape? And what other disruptive scenarios lie on the horizon?

Cross-sector partnerships: Opportunities in verticals now involve partnerships across sectors with a whole set of new stakeholders within this environment. What partnership options are available?

The intelligent future: Huge potential is offered through developments such as Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, big data-centric applications and innov ative business models. But what regulatory or policy challenges do these pose? What are the best business models? Or enabling tools?

“Debates at ITU Telecom World 2014 will boldly tackle both the risks posed to the ICT industry as well as the vast pool of opportunities for its future growth, which span new, cross-vertical partnerships, new technologies, policies and business models,” said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré.

Taking place from Dec. 7-10, it kicks off with a one-day summit on the future for leaders from governments, regulatory bodies and the ICT industry.

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COVER STORY

Bye, bye, backplane Hardware vendors are touting compelling benefits from software-defined networking

By Dave Webb

s technology marches on, advances in virtualization and storage area networking have made it possible for enterprises to more nimbly deploy systems and pull data into applications. Networking technology has not kept pace. We are not talking about actual speeds and feeds; we are talking about time to provision. We can spin up a virtual instance of a system for a new application within a matter of minutes. Provisioning its network access can still take weeks. The network has become the bottleneck. Hardware vendors are out to change that.

“The network has needed another level of abstraction for some time,” says Jacob Rapp, senior manager of software-defined networking marketing with Hewlett-Packard Co. in Palo Alto, Calif. Abstraction is what makes virtualization and storage area networking work. Remove as many processes, and as much hardware, as possible from the need for human intervention, and you can adapt more quickly to system changes, new applications, and, ultimately, new business processes and strategies.

Software-defined networking (SDN), and its uneasy cousin, network function virtualization (NfV), apply the concept of abstraction to network design and architecture to bring that same agility to the network.

What is SDN? The SDN model separates the control plane and the data plane of network hardware. Switches send the data, but decisions about how it will be routed take place in software. The control and data planes need a mechanism to communicate. It is most often (though not always) a protocol called OpenFlow, and that’s where the journey to SDN began.

The first version of the protocol was released in early 2011, its development managed by the Open Network Foundation – a non-profit consortium founded by Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Deutsche Telecom and Verizon. The organization now has more than 120 members supporting the OpenFlow protocol, including networking powerhouses Cisco Systems, IBM, Juniper, Dell, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and HP. There is a distinction between SDN and NfV. While SDN uses Open-

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”

COV E R S T ORY

The upside of an

SDN strategy is

impressive: Better rience for applications across the network, lower Flow, or another protocol, to bridge the gap total cost of ownership for a software-driven model, between control plane and data plane, netuser experience and monetization of the network itself. work virtualization creates a virtual model “If you look at location-based services out to of the network that is not even aware it is for applications a campus or branch or a retail setting, there are connected to the physical layers, according some really interesting things you can do,” Rapp to Rod Stuhlmuller, director of product maracross the network, says, from simply enabling the customer to creatketing for VMware Inc. The virtualization giant leans heavily toward the NfV side of the lower total cost ing new user experiences. For a SmartShopper application announced earlier this year, for examhouse. The model is similar to server virtualization, he says. of ownership for a ple, SDN helps deliver better location accuracy; retail networks can pinpoint what aisle in the store “What network virtualization does is it allows you to create, like a VM, a software consoftware-driven a shopper is and what product they may be looking at and deliver ads and custom promotion. tainer that, to a connected workload, looks, Why not SDN? For all the touted benefits, SDN feels, acts and delivers the same services model, and has not gained a lot of traction with enterprises, for as a physical network. But you’re not actually connected to the physical network, or monetization of a number of reasons.

“This is still a very nascent market,” says Tausthe workload doesn’t believe it’s connected the network itself. chek. Vendors are going all-in, but they haven’t figto the physical network,” Stuhlmuller said in ured out how to bake the ingredients. There is also an interview. “Ultimately, you use the physithe issue of proprietary versus open standards cal network to move packets around, but the – how much will Cisco support OpenFlow when construct that the workload is connected to is it has its own Open Network Environment (ONE)? What about Biga software container.”

Regardless of the model, separating the physical infrastructure Switch’s OpenDaylight? Vendors do not want to find themselves in a from the decision-making process brings enormous potential for position where they build it, and enterprises don’t come.

“There’s almost a little bit of a standards war,” he says. business benefits, says Mark Tauschek, principal consulting analyst And, like cloud computing, IT departments are leery of the poat London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group, and an outspoken tential security risks. SDN security is a double-sided coin, says Tausadvocate of SDN and NfV. Why SDN? “It’s pretty profound, really, and kind of a paradigm chek. A network that is almost instantly reconfigurable on an autoshift the way networking is done,” says Tauschek of the impact of mated basis can respond to mitigate a distributed denial of service SDN. The traditional networking connectivity model is one-port-per- (DDoS) attack much more efficiently than a static network. What connection. “You’re lucky if you can manage some of these ports or makes IT nervous is the prospect of an attacker getting root control of a software-based network. Attackers could take over control of the some of these devices with SNMP.” Making a network programmable, and opening it up to control network, render it useless or have complete visibility into it. “Someby other resources, has the potential to eliminate the need for a lot one could do a lot of damage,” Tauschek says.

And the replacement hardware refresh cycle has been bogged of hardware. For example, applying firewall policies through the network eliminates the need for edge firewalls. Wide area network down by a sluggish economy. Vendors are not in a position to tell optimization can be done in software. Essentially, anything an enter- customers they need an application controller, Tauschek says. prise typically needs an appliance for can be replaced by a network When they do open up their wallets, the SDN functionality will be part of the hardware. management system.

Rapp disagrees on the latter point.

“All that stuff goes away, and you have got that utopian, single“We’ve shipped 30 million ports that are OpenFlow-enabled,” pane-of-glass management,” Tauschek says. Network provisioning says Rapp. The only situation where SDN requires a forklift upgrade catches up with the speed of server and application provisioning.

Three things are primarily driving SDN strategy, according to is in a proprietary environment – like Cisco’s application-centric inRapp: increasing network complexity, the time required to supply frastructure (ACI) play, he says.

Stuhlmuller blames slow adoption at least partly on “SDN-washnetwork services, and the demand on the IT department to provide more and more services at a lower and lower cost. “It’s a tall order ing” – vendors have picked up SDN as a buzzword and are rebranding and repositioning with that in mind. to get done,” he says.

“You have basically anybody who has network equipment “Networks are not agile. They are really inflexible,” Rapp says.

“When you create new services or new business models within an having an SDN strategy and none of those being the same, and organization to find some kind of competitive advantage, the net- products that existed before the term existed that are now called works usually are the bottlenecks … they’re really holding things SDN,” he says. “And you’ve got people that position and say, ‘We’ve been using software to talk to our hardware forever, and back in general.”

But the upside of an SDN strategy is impressive: Better user expe- that’s SDN, so we have SDN.’”

”

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COVER STORY

Policy-driven networking: If VMware is solidly in the network function virtualization camp, centralizing network decisions within an abstracted network, Cisco firmly believes in distributing the SDN intelligence toward the edge of the network. In the networking giant’s Internet of Everything (IoE) vision, sensors and edge devices will provide terabytes of data – what parking spot is open, traffic patterns in retail stores, weather conditions – for near-real-time analysis and action. Data doesn’t have time to go north-south to a data centre for analysis. That means performing data analysis closer to the edge devices (so-called “fog computing”; it’s like cloud computing, but closer to the ground).

Hence ACI: Define the network on the fly according to the needs of the application.

At the Cisco Live 2014 user conference in San Francisco in May, Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s president of development and sales cemented ACI as Cisco’s SDN strategy: a single policy per application that can be deployed across private, managed, hosted and public clouds. It was part of a fleshing-out of Cisco’s earlier announcement of an “InterCloud” architecture, a sort of federation of cloud infrastructures that can seamlessly exchange workloads. Cloud providers, independent software developers, and intellectual property holders of applications are among the partners Cisco is counting on to deliver the vision.

Lloyd said it is built on OpenStack, an Apache-based open source architecture founded by cloud provider Rackspace and NASA, now encompassing most of the major players in its community. But it will be Cisco’s proprietary InterCloud fabric that will allow applications to move into other virtualized environments independent of the hypervisors involved.

“We’re going to build some of it, but we’re not going to build all of it,” Lloyd told the conference. Among the partners who will help build this “InterCloud” are cloud providers Sungard Availability Services and Dimension Data, Accenture, Johnson Controls, VCE, and data management company NetApp. InterCloud fabric will be to networking what roaming is to the mobile phone network, Lloyd said.

(See story on p. 10 for more on ACI and the Cisco Live 2014 conference in San Francisco.)

Feet in two camps: Neither SDN nor NfV is going to capture the entire market, nor entire enterprises for that matter, according to Avaya director of fabric and infrastructure Randy Cross.

“No one’s going to say, ‘We just do VMware NSX, and that’s it, nothing else.’ And no one is going to say, ‘We just do Cisco ACI, and that’s it, nothing else,’” Cross said in an interview last year.

“People are going to have different SDN models within their infrastructure to meet different needs, and those models need to be able to federate … It’s a combination of orchestration and network virtualization. And that’s really at the basis, that’s both camps’ definition of what it can be.”

AN ABBREVIATED GUIDE SDN: Software-defined networking. Essentially, moving the intelligence required to make decisions about moving packets into software instead of hardware.

NFV: Network function virtualization. Closely related to (and necessary for) SDN. Network functions take place in a virtual container that doesn’t need to be aware it’s connected to the network.

ONF: Open Network Foundation. A non-profit consortium with more than 120 members that develops and promotes the OpenFlow protocol for communicating between the control plane and the data plane.

ACI: Application-centric infrastructure. Cisco Systems’ policy-driven SDN architecture.

OPENSTACK: An Apache-based open source architecture founded

by RackSpace and NASA.

been providing OpenFlow-enabled switches since 2008, before it was called OpenFlow. “But that was just a protocol,” he says. Protocols can take years to develop to the point where they’re widely accepted. An architecture – SDN – had to be defined.

“Now I think we’re at the point this year, the architecture’s in place, the protocols have evolved to the point where they’re not in the pre-1.0 phase,” Rapp says. “This year, we’ve started to move on to actual solutions … later this year, and next year, we should see much greater adoption rates.”

HP’s SDN App Store features HP’s own SDN applications – for example, a network optimizer for Microsoft Lync and a network protection product – along with applications developed by partners, including BlueCat’s DNS Director (a DNS security product), a honeypot from GuardiCore, and a DDoS defense product from Radware.

The volume of acquisition movement on the SDN front is an indicator that vendors are going all-in on SDN, with VMware, Juniper and Cisco among the biggest buyers. But they are also pouring money into R&D, says Tauschek, and that means the technology is here to stay.

“When a vendor community gets so collectively behind a technology, it will happen,” Tauschek says.

C+

It’s about the applications If there is another consensus among the competing camps, it is this: applications are going to drive the move to SDN. Rapp says HP’has www.connectionsplus.ca

Dave Webb is a Toronto-based freelance writer. He can be reached at dave@dweebmedia.ca.

July/August 2014

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TR E N D I NG

Robots and Humans T A funny thing happened along the way toward a conventionallooking robotic future: Some of our most evolved robotic designs do not look like traditional robots at all.

By Carmi Levy 28

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July/August 2014

he traditional vision of a robot has not changed much in generations. Humanoid-looking beings with various combinations of heads, torsos, arms, legs, flashing lights and synthesized voices have long dominated the images we see in popular culture.

Because life imitates art, it is what we have been seeing in the real world, as well. Assembly robots on factory floors sport articulated limbs, while the Canadarm 2 that flies on the exterior of the International Space Station has more joints and sensors than any human arm.

The Robonaut robot that lives inside the station recently got a new set of legs. Closer to home, consumer-focused robots adhere to the human-like form factor, as well, as if making them look, sound and feel more like us will help us overcome lingering fears of robot invasion and accept them as complements to our everyday lives that free us from mundane and repetitive tasks. www.connectionsplus.ca

TRENDI NG

After decades of Hollywood-driven stereotypes, robotics is going mainstream, and it’s being driven by the same explosion in mobile technology that’s managed to put supercomputer-equivalent Party earlier this year. “The But a funny thing hapreality is that robotic technolpened along the way tosmartphones in our pockets and ogy is already hard at work ward a conventional-looking in our homes and our cars and robotic future: Some of our ultra-highspeed wireless networks our hospitals, and throughout the most evolved robotic designs do manufacturing sector, as well.” not look like traditional robots at virtually everywhere else.

Luinenburg, a graduate of Western all. The Roomba vacuum cleaner, for University’s Richard Ivey Business School example, looks like an oversized hockey in London, Ont., says Silicon Valley residents puck that more or less intelligently navigates see robotics on display virtually every day, as around the house before returning itself to its Google’s prototype autonomous vehicles routinely cruise docking station to recharge its batteries.

Apple Siri and Google Now, which on the surface seem to be little Highway 101.

“We are seeing a tremendous amount of activity in the startup more than voice-interactive mobile apps, are in fact the modern inworld relating to robotics, largely because the cost of the hardware carnation of everything a good robot should be.

You do not necessarily need arms and legs to be a good robot, pieces that go into these innovations have come down fairly dramatiand the growing diversity in form factors and capabilities under- cally,” he says. “Hobbyists and early stage startups can actually start scores just how radically – and quickly – the robotics space is now playing with the robotic component parts and put things together.”

The land rush to build a robotics competency is already fuelling evolving. After decades of Hollywood-driven stereotypes, robotics is going mainstream, and it’s being driven by the same explosion exploding interest in making North American-based electronics in mobile technology that’s managed to put supercomputer-equiv- manufacturing cost effective instead of farming it out overseas.

“Robotics is driving a revolution in new manufacturing methods, alent smartphones in our pockets and ultra-high-speed wireless which hopefully will make it commercially viable to move production networks virtually everywhere else.

“Smartphones and computers changed our lives very fundamen- back to the U.S. for electronic products and computer products that tally, all within a few short years,” says Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, are currently being manufactured overseas,” says Luinenburg, adddirector of Osaka University’s Intelligent Robotics Lab. “We are look- ing that many of the Valley’s largest technology companies, including Apple, have made significant financial commitments to bring ing at the same thing with robots.”

Professor Ishiguro, whose research has focused on making ro- machine-based fabrication closer to home.

Luinenburg says fears that increased use of robotics takes jobs botics as humanlike as possible, says robotics is very much a mirror of humanity. “The technology is a way of evolution,” he says. “By cre- away from people are unfounded.

“We consider it that you are not taking jobs away,” he says. “You ating new technologies, we are extending our abilities.”

Those abilities will extend even further as The Internet of Things are really just shifting jobs higher up. You are going to need a certain takes hold. This new megatrend, where even everyday items at amount of engineers to create, develop and deploy these types of home, in the office and on the factory floor become intelligent and robotics and maintain them on an ongoing basis.”

Luinenburg defines 3D printing as a form of robotics, and calls connected, redefines large-scale automation and further stretches it integral to these efforts because it lowers the barriers to entry for the definition of robotics. Business will never be the same.

“When people think about robots, they think about things like traditionally capital-intensive hardware companies.

“We are seeing devices now at a very early stage that are able Terminators and R2D2s from science fiction movies,” says Glenn Luinenburg, a Silicon Valley lawyer who has worked with dozens to print circuit boards from a plan, which effectively is really lowof robotics manufacturers and organized Palo Alto’s Robotic Block ering the barriers of entry to continued innovation,” he said. “Trawww.connectionsplus.ca

July/August 2014

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TR E N D I NG

”

The robotics

revolution extends

“You have seen a level of automation that’s ditionally, hardware companies have been beyond traditional starting to take place on video analytics, which incredibly expensive from a capital perspeca computer in that sense to do the job of tive to scale to any sort of size. But with robotuse cases like uses the operator to analyze these video screens,” he ics driving costs down, I think you are going “That is a little different than what people to see significant investment in hardware over factory floors and said. maybe think of robotics – i.e. something that the next five years. I see robotics as a tool that will help both Canada and the U.S. continue security perimeters. looks like a robot that moves around – but it is definitely automation, and it uses technology to to be on the world’s forefront when it comes to technological innovation.”

Milo is a human- automate dull, dangerous and dirty tasks. If we can free up people to do things like walk around Robotics is also advancing the state-of-theart in areas long considered resistant to techlooking robot that instead of looking at video screens, we’d be much more effective in how we do things.” nological innovation.

The robotics revolution extends beyond tra“A lot of people look at robotics through the works with autistic ditional use cases like factory floors and seculens of the three Ds: dirty, dangerous and dull, says Brian Gerkey, CEO and founder of the children to teach rity perimeters. Milo is a human-looking robot that works with autistic children to teach them Open Source Robotics Foundation. “If a busithem social and social and developmental skills. ness has any positions that fit these descripIt uses artificial intelligence to detect and retions, there is a good chance there will be a rodevelopmental spond to facial expressions, recognize speech, botic alternative in the coming years. Imagine engage in interactive conversation, and deliver a drone monitoring a remote oil pipeline, for skills. advanced teaching curricula efficiently and example, or a robot thinning seeds for a lettuce cost effectively. farmer and you get a sense of what early adop“You can give someone the greatest therapy tion of robots might look like.” in the world, but the reality is most of the time they Logan Harris, CEO of SpotterRF, says intelligent need the same thing, over and over,” says Fred robotics can do the job better – and save lives in Margolin, CEO and founder of RoboKind, which the process. His company specializes in surveildesigns and makes Milo. “This level of tremenlance systems for consumer and military use, an dous repetition means you can’t feasibly do that area where automation is already paying off. with human staff members. It takes a tremenTraditional security systems rely on putting up dous amount of time and investment, and there large numbers of cameras, then hiring people can be some frustration around doing the same to keep an eye on them. Harris says university thing continuously.” research has proven this to be ineffective, with Margolin says the robot is a gamechanger. the average person unable to register changes in “It has got 870 pieces to it, with hundreds of the scene after barely 20 minutes. thousands of lines of code. In a lot of ways, it’s almost “If they are looking at something that is really not semi conscious. As we have used it and worked on perchanging very much at all, the human brain becomes defecting this, kids are engaged at level that is so exciting it’s unsensitized to it and in effect can no longer pay attention,” says Harris. “This is a major issue for business, as critical infrastructure is believable,” he says.

“Kids who in some cases wouldn’t even talk to staff will often talk basically reliant on security guards being paid $10 to $12 an hour to directly to the robot.” The Milo robot, which just went into production watch these screens, but after 20 minutes, they can’t see anything.”

Harris says robotics can pick up where human eyes clearly and will sell for US$3,500 and up, represents a significant leap in leave off to secure larger areas within factories and out in the open. cost-effective design and manufacturing, says Margolin. While earInstead of using large numbers of so-called dumb cameras, Spot- lier robots used about 35 servos – each costing about $150 – to conterRF’s offerings integrate automated cameras with radar-based trol movement, the new device uses just one $150 master controller surveillance. Real-time 3D analysis can detect movement, then cue to control complex movements and expressions.

“We took $8,000 worth of motors and knocked it down to $150 a camera to alert security for possible response. The response itself that creates the same lifelike movements that we did before,” says can also be automated.

”

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TR E N D I NG

Margolin. “The breakthrough enabled us to create a robot that’s really cost effective but can still do all the things we want it to do.”

Margolin sees further cost/performance breakthroughs ahead.

“With additional advances, down the road we’ll be able to produce a robot for the home that is more in the $1,000 range. That will be completely affordable,” he says. “But right now we think this robot is a pretty incredible breakthrough Rather than replace existing educational resources or taking jobs away from teachers, Margolin says the robot enhances their ability to do more.

“The robot can deRobotic liver the lessons and the teachers can foltechnology low up on it,” he says.

“It is a perfect one-two is already punch that expands capability of the hard at work the teachers.”

That value-add lies in our homes at the core of the robotic value proposition. and our cars “In a very real and our way, robotics represents the whole prohospitals, and cess of automating these tasks that are throughout the repetitive and achieving a level of freedom manufacturing for anyone and for everyone,” says Harris. sector. “I am sure Sergei Brin at Google is thinking the same thing.

He hates to drive because it is dull and boring. So he is trying to make a Google car so he doesn’t have to drive anymore.

“You could be doing something else more interesting and more worthwhile,” he adds. “I think that is really the promise of robotics: To free humans from doing things that machines could do better, and to have the freedom to be creative.”

C+

”

”

Carmi Levy (@carmilevy) is a London, Ont.based independent technology analyst and journalist.

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Global service robotics market to be worth US$46 billion by 2017 According to the market research report “Personal & Professional Service Robotics Market – Global Forecast & Assessment by Applications & Geography (2012 – 2017)” published by MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com), the total service robotics market is expected to reach US$46.18 billion by 2017.

Its assessment of the market is as follows: Though the evolution of the service robotics market started in the late 1900s, the market for service robots picked up only two decades ago in response to the growing ageing population across the world. The devices currently being sold are simple and elementary as compared to earlier devices.

Service robotics is a wide technology area that also includes a subset of various enabling technologies. It is also an area of increasing interest, investment, and hype.

Within this backdrop, domestic, military, and healthcare are the applications driving service robotics commercialization. Mobile robots and unmanned systems consist of several subsystems. The technologies involved in these systems will require advances if robots are to see an extensive use in personal home and security applications.

“The definition of service robots is already dynamic; active in a multitude of industries, emerging in many more sectors, likely to have a serious worldwide economic impact, and encompasses all the methods of processing, service, and assistance with robots.”

Service robots are classified into personal service robots and professional service robots. Personal service robots are meant for household jobs, education, entertainment, and for assistance to the elderly and physically and mentally challenged population. Some of the examples of service robots are domestic robots such as the ASIMA, a Humanoid from Honda, ”Roomba” (vacuum cleaners) and ”Aibo”, the Sony robot dog.

Professional service robots are high-tech, sophisticated, highly valuable, and increasingly being used in factories, hospitals, public buildings, dangerous and hazardous environments, oceans, the space, cow barns, and fields. Some of the examples of professional service robots include underwater remotely operated vehicles, cow milking robots, medical robots, and bomb disposal robots.

The service robotics industry will witness a blend of leading industrial robotics manufacturers who will benefit from technology gains in the new high growth sectors, as well as cutting edge service robotics companies that combine the latest robotics technology with practical uses primarily in the home and in the defense, service, and medical industries.

The market is driven by factors like ageing population, value enhancement by robots, increasing grants and funds by governments, increasing venture capital investments in service robotics companies, enhancements in complementary technologies and integration of robotics with mobile technologies, other smart products, and appliances.

The leading market players in service robotics industry include Honda Motors (Japan), iRobot (U.S.), AB Electrolux (Sweden), Sony (Japan), Fujitsu (Japan), Toyota (Japan), GeckoSystems (U.S.) and Yujin Robot (South Korea)

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Connections+ 2014 MEDIA KIT The magazine for ICT professionals, Connections+ readership targets 60,000+ individuals who purchase, design, specify, install, maintain and test structured cabling, networking and telecom products as well as facilities management specialists and senior IT executives who are responsible for overseeing the implementation and installation of these initiatives.

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TH E B ACK PAG E

Dragged by the nose

By Dave Webb

ne of my dirty little secrets: I spent my summers in college building green screens. They were IBM 5291s, to be precise. (Yes, I am that old.) It was your classic assembly line affair, where I would stamp the baseplate with a serial number, screw in the power supply, and send it along to the next guy with the other specs needed, like which regional keyboard.

Three or four more guys down the line, the finished product would be boxed up. My shining moment of those midnights was changing the specs on one machine to request a Scottish keyboard; the keyboard guy took half an hour searching before he realized it was a joke. Good times.

Ten years later, after a career hiccup in graphic arts management, I found myself working in a newsroom. My terminal wasn’t a 5291, but it was monochrome, text-only and familiar – a Microtech, I believe.

This worked in (more or less) perfect harmony with the brand-spanking-new laser printer that output our galleys. I was happy.

Then someone put this thing on my desk. It was running something called a “gooey” in colour on an operating system called “Windows.” I did not like it. I did not find it contributed to my work experience. I was fine doing manual markup.

You can guess who won that battle.

I’m guessing I’m not the only user of that era to resist change. But it is a different user these days, and they’re hungry for it – or, at least, the capabilities new technology offers. Now, it’s often the IT department that’s resistant.

We have been talking about the problem of “shadow IT”– end-users bypassing the IT department to install new technology – since Wi-Fi vendors (in what was obviously a fit of madness) made access points easy enough for anyone to install. Suddenly, they were sprouting like beans in the office, with the predictable security consequences.

Consider this: Despite years of evangelism from virtualization vendors, Cisco Systems Inc.’s senior vice president Soni Jiandani estimates that 75% of servers are still bare metal. Meanwhile, rogue users are using software-as-as-service offerings from cloud providers left and right. Virtualizing a server takes IT resources and skills. Any bozo can whip out a credit card and order software-as-a-service.

(By the way, Jiandani figures only a third of servers

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will be running virtual machines by 2018.)

We are seeing the same thing with softwaredefined networking. Network vendors have been touting it as the-next-big-thing-that-you-must-have-totransform-your-enterprise since 2011. But the traction is not there at least not yet. Meanwhile, isn’t collaboration over DropBox dandy?

It used to be, the tech department had to drag users by the nose to get them to use new technologies (and, to tell you the truth, at my last full-time gig, they still had to drag me). Now users are doing end-runs, dancing around IT’s requirements to make their jobs easier—and their companies less secure.

And don’t even get started on BYOD. It’s easy to blame IT. They’re just protecting their jobs, some say. They don’t want to adapt. I don’t think it’s nearly that simple.

IT is squeezed on every side: increased service demand; lower budgets; users exposing the system with BYOD and unmanaged SaaS offerings; lagging refresh cycles. When the economy limps along like it’s doing now, it’s hard to convince the head table that IT’s an investment, not a cost.

When a user dodges IT to install a service that threatens company security, the excuse is often, “The techies weren’t responsive enough, so I did it myself.”

Guess what? The techies have a lot to respond to.

Still, there’s an unprecedented need for agility in the business world, and if the app is right, users will use it. And the tech department is stuck just below this tipping point, where new, exciting, efficient technologies will make them more responsive, but the money – not just for hardware, software, and services, but for training on new technologies like SDN and cloud management – often isn’t there.

IT’s long march from being viewed as a cost centre to a being viewed as a business enabler is far from over. There may be faults on both sides of the IT/ business divide, but it’s time for some bullet-biting. IT has to recognize that with the increased abstraction of technology, its role has to change, to that of a broker of services – whether their in-house or third-party.

I’m sure you’ve heard that enough. But the business side has to hear that that kind of transformation takes training, investment, and time.

Dave Webb is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

He can be reached at dave@dweebmedia.ca.

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