HP Introduces New DCN Offering 

HP today announced at SDN and OpenFlow World Congress the expansion of its network virtualization portfolio with a new Distributed Cloud Networking (DCN) solution.

Legacy networks are constraining the full potential of a unified software-defined data center, limiting IT's ability to simplify complex frameworks and enable seamless multi data center deployments. While IT has the ability to provision, manage and oversee virtualized servers and storage, they are still required to manually configure networking systems.

DCN is a software-defined networking (SDN) solution that enables service providers and large organizations to automatically deploy secure cloud networks across a distributed infrastructure in minutes versus months. DCN is also accelerating communication service providers' (CSP) journey to Network Function Virtualization (NFV) by optimizing network resources, increasing agility and speeding time-to-market through dynamic, service-driven configuration.

Through SDN and network virtualization, DCN enables network administrators to control the distributed networking environment from one central location, whether the organization incorporates private, public or hybrid data centers. Through highly automated management, DCN not only provides a true return on investment of networking equipment, it also lowers the total cost of ownership to deliver an enhanced user experience and increased productivity.

"Customers are looking for ways to upgrade their networks to better focus on building business and incorporating new technologies that adapt to rapidly changing demands," said Antonio Neri, senior vice president and general manager, Servers and Networking, HP. "Distributed Cloud Networking allows customers to seamlessly work across their distributed environment, removing the need to manually reconfigure the network and offering a more efficient infrastructure at reduced costs."

HP Technology Services offers solution level support with Datacenter Care, which is a flexible, comprehensive, relationship-based approach to personalized support and management of DCN solutions. To help customers manage risk, HP Trusted Network Transformation spans strategy, assessment, design, deployment, customized support, management of change, and complete lifecycle program management across all transformational elements.

Addressing new business needs with SDN and network virtualization

The DCN enables organizations to radically simplify network provisioning with the following key elements:

• HP Virtualized Service Directory, refines service design and integrates with customer service policies. This allows for seamless management of users, compute and network resources.
• HP Distributed Services Controller, serves as a robust control plane of the data center network. Through controller federation, network administrators have a centralized control of their network, regardless of how many data centers are being managed, allowing scalability, resiliency and consistency of network implementation.
• HP Distributed Virtual Routing and Switching, based on Open vSwitch, serves as a virtual endpoint for network services allowing for changes in the compute environment to be immediately detected, thereby triggering the right network connectivity to ensure the needs of applications are met.

The DCN solution also addresses a wide range of use cases, specifically:

• Automation: Complex network configuration can be done automatically and in real-time without human intervention, which is programmatically controlled by HP Cloud System application management.
• IT self-service: Enabling customers to move from building clouds to simplified usability without human intervention.
• Multi Data Center: An enhanced consistency of user experience across multiple data centers.
• DevOps: Rapid provisioning of test environments which can reduce deployment time, resulting in lower agility with direct business impact.
• NFV: Reliable, dynamic and open architecture for smooth carrier transition to a fully automated multi data center environment.
• Optimization of user experience: Workload mobility is designed to distribute the applications closer to where the end user is located, resulting in a boost in speed and responsiveness.