Agencies Need to Get to the Cloud, Faster and Easier

You might have heard about Brocade’s recent acquisition of a company called Vyatta.

Vyatta is built on the fact that software-based networking is a critical component in network virtualization, and that software networking will actually transform those same networks into innovation platforms. The Federal government is one of the top target verticals for Vyatta and Brocade’s SDN strategy because it aligns so well with the current IT mandates that most federal agencies need to adhere to.

So what does this acquisition mean to government agencies? Software networking is a key part of the evolution of the network as agencies continue to virtualize and move to the cloud. Vyatta’s technology brings the ability to deliver new services and applications faster while being in an excellent position to quickly meet the changing needs of our customers. You can read what I said to the Washington Post’s Capital Business about the government’s need for virtualization here.

I’ve said before that agencies need to let go of their 10+ year old legacy networks and start taking more aggressive action towards virtualization and ‘as a service’ technologies, and I still agree with that statement. It’s the only way to meet the cloud and data center related mandates while being conscious of IT budgets.

Despite the lack of growth in IT budgets and the mandates directed at cloud adoption and data center consolidation, our government customers need to be able to support their own teams and meet requirements for non-stop access to mission-critical data,. This acquisition makes Brocade the clear leader when it comes to vision for software based networking and SDN, and it will help agencies solve their biggest IT challenges.

Networking is about to get a whole lot more interesting and I’m looking forward to what is to come in 2013.