Network and security professionals need to be enablers, not inhibitors to data center virtualization. The efficiencies, agility, and lower TCO the business gains from data center virtualization are compelling, especially in challenging economic times.
Often network or security professionals construct barriers and silos to facilitate a partitioned IT infrastructure. This is understandable, because networks are burdened with legacy infrastructure and security threats continue to rise. However, the model of physically fencing resources to provide partitioned networks and associated security is changing; most likely forever.
Practitioners need to find ways to preserve security and network flexibility, but at the same time deliver more logical network segmentation. The notion of physical separated networks and VLAN containment is giving way to a virtual world.
Action Item: Don't be the "No"-man sitting in your Ivory Tower. Network and security practitioners must endeavor to facilitate new models of securing modern infrastructure. This will require re-thinking legacy notions of how to physically secure infrastructure and architect more logical and flexible environments. The result will be greater agility with less constraints on lines of business across organizations and importantly into global partner ecosystems.
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