IBM Network Innovation Centers Apply Cloud Technologies To Networking
IBM announced the availability of two IBM Network Innovation Centers, offering cloud-based Software Defined Networking (SDN), virtualization and other services. Customers can offload existing infrastructure to the IBM Network Innovation Centers or use the centers to add new functionality to their networks. According to IBM, this approach helps cut costs and offers improved scalability and agility
“Effectively applying cloud technologies to the network could allow a company to reduce its overall network capacity while increasing utilization by dynamically providing resources during the day in Beijing while it’s nighttime in New York, and vice versa,” said Pete Lorenzen, general manager, Networking Services, IBM Global Technology Services. “Or a telecom company could better manage periodic, localized spikes in smartphone usage caused by major sporting events or daily urban commutes, dynamically provisioning capacity when and where it’s needed.”
The new IBM Network Innovation Centers are located in Nice, France and Dallas, Texas. The centers make a wide variety of new network technologies available to customers. Technology partners offering services along with IBM at these centers include Brocade, Citrix, Juniper, Riverbed and VMware. The Network Innovation Centers enable large enterprise customers to freely explore and evaluate an array of new technologies at low cost.
These centers offer improved scalability and agility by allowing customers to add network resources on demand, with the ability to locate these resources where needed. This will help customers to deal with changes in demand, while requiring less in the way of network resources.
Companies can use the new centers to add new applications and services faster, allowing them to keep pace with changing requirements and customer demand. Improved integration between the different components of their IT infrastructure helps lower network complexity and management costs. Services offered at the two centers can be accessed on-site or remotely.
The IBM Network Innovation Centers are operated by IBM GTS Networking Services
