2019: Look for improvements to software-defined data-center networks

To help IT pros attain top performance for their software-defined data-center networks (SDDCN), we have identified 10 crucial technology areas to watch and evaluate during 2019.SDDCN performance requires advanced network software to provision, manage and secure high-speed traffic flows, and network administrators need automated solutions to monitor and deliver reliable quality of service to critical applications. The SDDCN combines with compute resources (virtual machines and containers) and storage (disc and flash) to deliver specified performance for private-cloud applications. Via software abstraction, data-center resources can be easily reallocated to address changing application requirements without changing the underlying physical compute, storage or network elements.Here are 10 factors to keep an eye in during the coming year in order to optimize the performance of SDDNCs. Most organizations now live in a multi-cloud world with applications running on a wide variety of IaaS, SaaS and internal data-center platforms. IT organizations need the ability to track application performance independent of the platform and to be able to migrate applications/data to the most appropriate service based on latency, security/compliance and cost concerns. Network software (both in the data center and SD-WAN) will increasingly be used to track data flows and to facilitate the migration of applications/data to the appropriate platform. During 2019, IT will be challenged to enable multi-cloud support by integrating network security, cloud-based security and internal IT security systems.