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VMware NSX: An introduction

After server and desktop virtualization, VMware is now focusing on network virtualization. Essentially the company has been focusing so far on the 'compute' market for Virtualization and now it has started working on a similar product for Network.

Lets admit it, Networks take more time to provision. With virtualization coming in, the creation of Servers, desktops etc now takes minutes when compared to hours/days/weeks situation in the pre-virtualization era. But if we have a new network requirement for the VMs, it can be sorted to an extend using vSwitch. What if the requirement goes beyond that? Say a router /firewall/VPN that should be used by the VM. Of course, we should get in touch with the networking guys and it could take some time for the stuff to get sorted out

With NSX, Vmware aims to address this bottle neck. The idea is to provision,backup and manage networks similar to how you manage your VMs now. There will be logical switches,routers, firewalls and VPNs.You can create virtual networks using these logical devices, connect your VMs to them , backup your network topology,create templates and deploy on demand. Your underlying physical network will act as the "packet forwarding backplane" as per VMware.

Interesting concept actually!! Would love to see how this gets implemented in real world . Vmware is yet to come up with details of this, and it has already tied up with various partners like Dell,HP,Juniper networks etc to make this a reality. So the key is to wait and watch :)


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