Insights & Ideas

Written by Stage7 Systems

Ask any application power-user what their primary frustrations are and they’ll likely say speed and availability. What they’re referring to is the speed at which the applications they use launch, perform and shut down, and how often those applications are or are not accessible to them. This is true whether they’re using web-based systems or traditional systems, streamed or locally installed applications. In the end, it’s all about productivity and getting things done faster. Unfortunately, most of today’s networks have been built up over time using a patchwork of solutions designed to treat specific symptoms of a larger issue – network performance degradation. This patchwork of solutions creates complexity and chaos for IT and as it ages, it becomes harder and harder to rip-and-replace or maintain.

This concept is really no different than the workstations and laptops you use everyday. Think of how productive you can be if there’s an Internet outage; that’s your availability factor. In addition, the more pieces of software we have to install on a device to make it useful, the more difficult it is to maintain it or configure a replacement when the time comes. Simplicity, speed and the ability to maintain high levels of availability to the systems you use are critical, even at the single device level, and your broader network infrastructure is no different.

In our quest to modernize our network infrastructures, what battles are we fighting? Many, but as a starting point, ask yourself if any of these statements sound familiar:

• The distance between our users and our data centers is increasing
• We’re using legacy applications that weren’t designed for highly distributed environments
• The performance of our servers seems to steadily decline even though they’re under-utilized
• We have no way of proactively identifying bottlenecks so we just respond when necessary

If two or more of those statements resonate with you then you’ve probably been reacting to the individual symptoms of an aging network. If you change your thinking you could make great progress towards optimizing your infrastructure.

THE SIDE EFFECTS OF POINT SOLUTIONS

There are scenarios in which we might advocate point solutions – an SSL-VPN appliance here, a load balancer there, and so on. However, most of those scenarios are temporary because like all things, those point solutions will age and performance will eventually decline.

Some of the side effects of making point solutions a permanent fixture of your infrastructure are:

• The time required to diagnose an application performance issue will increase commensurate to the number of point solutions deployed
• It will lead to “point solution proliferation” as you respond to application performance issues with more and more point solutions
• The overhead costs of supporting the environment will increase in terms of training and product maintenance agreements
• The overall performance degradation of the environment as each point solution ages or becomes overloaded will offset any early gains experienced by its deployment

If you look at your network diagram and see a myriad of firewalls, VPN gateways, traffic managers, content switches, load balancers, etc. take the time to add up the cost of your support agreements, the average time it takes to properly diagnose and resolve an application performance issue, and the time it takes to replace a legacy device. In performing that exercise, your results might help you identify areas for improvement through device consolidation.

WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE?

To be sure, making the move from a legacy network infrastructure to a more modernized environment is difficult. Not necessarily because of the technical intricacies of doing it but because it’s often hard to let go of past technologies that have treated you so well. It can also be harder to get infrastructure funding because it’s frequently viewed as “the cost of doing business.”

Over the past few years, the emerging class of integrated network appliances has made dramatic improvements. These devices combine many of the point solutions identified above into a single physical OR virtual appliance. As an added bonus, some of the functions of integrated network appliances can be tied to compliance adherence, user productivity gains, and disaster recovery, which can help smooth the way for funding a modernization project.

Most of the time, you can find integrated network appliances that will bundle the following functions into a single device:

• Traffic Management
• SSL Acceleration
• VPN Gateway
• Content Caching
• DoS/DDoS Protection
• Load Balancing
• Failover / High Availability

You don’t have to tackle everything all at once though. You have the freedom to enable / disable functionality as your modernization initiative matures. This freedom leads to the next point, which can determine the solution’s success in your environment.

IF YOU AVOID ANY PITFALL, MAKE IT THIS ONE

Assuming you’ve gotten the green light on a network modernization project and plan to consolidate your point solutions, there’s a trap that many fall into – UNDER-UTILIZATION. Avoid it in the long-run if at all possible because the value you’re able to extract from your consolidation efforts diminishes a great deal if you don’t.

As mentioned above, you can scale these devices by turning on functionality as you continue your modernization efforts. That said, don’t hitch your wagon to the horse and then fail to crack the whip. Scale the solution to meet your needs as necessary and at the right time but scale it nonetheless. As the solution matures in your environment you’ll find that your overall cost of support decreases while your ability to quickly respond to application performance issues increases.