Chapter 1. Business Drivers Behind Enterprise Network Virtualization

Today's enterprises service diverse groups of users, each with specific needs. The different business needs of these groups translate into varying network requirements. In some enterprises, these requirements can be so dissimilar that the different groups must be treated as totally separate customers by the enterprise's IT department.

Network virtualization is an architectural approach to providing a separate logical networking environment for each group within the enterprise. These logical environments are created over a single shared network infrastructure. Each logical network provides the corresponding user group with full network services similar to those provided by a traditional nonvirtualized network. The experience from the end-user perspective is that of having access to a dedicated network with dedicated resources and independent security policies. Thus, the virtualization of the network involves the logical segmentation of the network transport, the network devices, and all the network services.

Because the diverse logical networks share a common network infrastructure and a common, often centralized, set of service appliances and servers, user groups can collaborate with enhanced flexibility and manageability. This enhanced collaboration enables new business processes that would not be possible (or even imaginable) over a traditional network. Throughout this chapter, you will see examples of enterprises that rely on the virtualization of their network to modify their processes and operations. You will see how some enterprises can transform their network into a revenue-generating asset or increment the volume of operations possible at a specific facility or even open new streams of revenue by exploiting otherwise idle resources in creative ways.