Hierarchy of Needs for Content Networking

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1 Technology, M. Fabbi Research Note 28 October 2002 Hierarchy of Needs for Content Networking Enterprises should understand the hierarchy of needs for content networking, which is illustrated by examining increasing investments and the integration of Internet technologies into business processes. Core Topic Enterprise Networking: Network Equipment Vendors and Technologies Key Issue During the five-year planning period, which networking equipment vendors and technologies will enterprises use to successfully build their networks? The content networking market continues to evolve as established players re-target their offerings toward enterprise solutions, and new vendors seek to raise the bar with new functionality and integration. Understanding the evolution of this market and how it maps to enterprise requirements will help enterprises evaluate emerging content networking technologies. Hierarchy of Needs Gartner uses a model describing an enterprise's Web presence and preparedness to take advantage of Web technologies in its business processes. When considering the network infrastructure requirements that correspond to this model, an associated hierarchy of needs can be developed (see Figure 1). This hierarchy has paralleled the developments of new features for content networking products, such as load balancers, caches and bandwidth management devices, and continues to parallel venture capital investments and new developments from emerging and established market participants. Gartner Entire contents 2002 Gartner, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Figure 1 Hierarchy of Needs for Content Networking Web Presence Networking Implications Primary Design Principle Year Level 1 Basic Presence Reliable connectivity Basic server redundancy Basic Connectivity 1997 Level 2 Prospecting + High availability User-based redirection Traffic scalability Availability 2000 Level 3 Business Integration Level 4 Business Transformation + + Secure transactions Session persistence Performance optimization Content-based routing Scale Absolute availability Cost containment Management Performance Operational Efficiency Source: Gartner Research Level 1: Basic Connectivity Networking requirements are simple at this first stage provide reliable communications for a basic Web presence. For larger enterprises, this may include simple load-balancing capabilities to enable the Web site to scale to support more users. However, because there are no advanced applications or functions within the site, scale is only required to respond to volume, which can be done simply by adding servers and Layer 3/Layer 4 loadbalancing or clustering technologies. Because most enterprise Web initiatives have moved beyond this level, products that only provide basic connectivity functionality are obsolete or have been rolled into more-advanced offerings. Level 2: Availability Web initiatives at this level involve some degree of user interaction. This may take the form of explicit user login, the use of cookies to distinguish among users or segmenting users into service classes. Networking requirements are significantly more complex because the applications have become more critical to the enterprise, and applications and content are scaled to be tailored to different user classes, content types and applications. From a physical deployment perspective, the Web server architecture will no longer scale to fit onto an increasing number of identically configured servers. Logical groupings of servers to segment the suite of Web functions by user, content or application is the next step. 28 October

3 When moving into this environment, the network must make decisions based on the Web site's architecture. Thus, Layer 4-7 server load-balancing solutions that were developed. Mainstream products can examine the application data stream and redirect traffic using URLs, cookies and other application metrics. In addition, these products add persistence capabilities to ensure transaction completion. Previously, there were as many as 10 competitors in this space. However, the market has consolidated into five vendors: Cisco Systems, F5 Networks, Foundry Networks, Nortel Networks and Radware. The initial focus on availability was targeted within a single data center, and most of the fundamental requirements are now wellunderstood. Follow-up solutions target extended availability to accommodate multiple data centers (global redirection) and multiple Internet service providers (link determination). These new solutions continue to increase overall availability and reliability by taking advantage of redundant or geographically dispersed data centers, as well as redundant service providers. While significantly increasing availability, these new solutions also increase performance. Established vendors have added global redirection technologies by integrating them into their platforms or as stand-alone devices. The emerging market for link determination is a hotbed of startup innovation. Vendors in this area include netvmg, RouteScience, Sockeye Networks and Proficient Networks, as well as F5 and Radware. Level 3: Performance At this level, the Web site starts to deal with transactions that drive top-line revenue for the enterprise. User experiences are important for customer retention and service. For the network, this requires an increase focus on performance not simply looking at how quickly bits flow on the network, but also considering the performance of end-to-end interactions and transactions. A trend for the past 18 months is to migrate functions that reside on the server to dedicated hardware in network appliances. Major performance gains can be made simply by moving processor-intensive and repetitive functions from a general-purpose server to dedicated hardware solutions. The best examples of this trend are server-side caching/content delivery networks and SSL termination, which moved into dedicated appliances to offload processor-intensive functions. With SSL, the next step is emerging with the integration of dedicated SSL hardware into a wide range of high-performance optimization devices. Vendors with integrated solutions include Array Networks, Cisco and F5. Stand-alone and adjunct solutions are available from Ingrian Networks, Nortel, SonicWALL, Radware and others. Moving SSL functions into dedicated hardware enables Web servers to deal with at least an order of 28 October

4 magnitude more users while significantly improving overall endto-end performance. How devices deal with the requirements of connection/session management also is changing. Rather than simply acting as an intermediary between clients and servers and having a one-toone correlation between incoming requests and server connections, new network equipment is assuming the role of a connection proxy, to the benefit of user and server performance. This has most commonly been used to map to the server a huge volume of client HTTP sessions into a small number of persistent sessions. Emerging vendors NetScaler and Redline Networks offer this functionality, as do incumbents such as F5. Similar techniques are being applied to other processor-intensive session interactions, such as Nortel's management of back-end SSL sessions. Level 4: Operational Efficiency The next phase of the development of the content networking market is emerging. Until recently, enterprises with content networking requirements rarely looked at the cost (capital or operational) of content networking solutions. As the market moves toward mainstream enterprise deployment, moretraditional evaluation metrics become important. In addition, the rapid proliferation of point products in this market is ripe for functional, operational and device consolidation. It's not common to see an Internet data center (IDC) with as many as six or more different functional devices, each with different configuration and operational interfaces, and all of which must be connected by a reliable network architecture. New solutions are starting to take a holistic view of content network requirements within the IDC. There are two different philosophical approaches to consolidation. Some vendors are attempting to consolidate of all of the functions with a common platform or architecture. The other approach is to look at two different consolidation points, one inside and one outside the firewall (see Figure 2). We believe that there are two natural consolidation points within the IDC and, ultimately, vendors that support this architecture will be more successful. 28 October

5 Internet Service Provider A Figure 2 IDC Consolidation Points Trends Firewall Cache Web Server Internet Service Provider B Source: Gartner Research Edge Switch Link Determination Traffic Management/ Quality of Service Firewall Load Balancing Security Enforcement Engine Content Switch Server and Cache Load Balancing Layer 4-7 SSL Termination Connection Management Switching Platform Compression In addition to a simple consolidation of functions into morecomprehensive platforms, there is movement toward improved architectures, simpler management interfaces, and improved and automated interaction between content networking and other components within the IDC (such as servers and software). Several vendors are considering a content services switch, where the switch can provide high-speed packet parsing and switching functions with the ability to layer on a suite of services either integrated in the box in a closed architecture, or as part of an open platform when the content switch becomes an enforcement agent for other intelligent devices, such as firewalls, application filters, intrusion detection systems and others. These vendors include Array, F5 and Nortel. In addition, F5 is the leading provider of an open control plane (via its icontrol interface) to enable the automated control and configuration of F5 devices within the infrastructure. This functionality can significantly reduce the complexity and time required to modify complex configurations within the network. Bottom Line: Enterprises often take an overly tactical and shortterm view of their content networking requirements. They apply a temporary solution to a single problem, or a relatively simple application is used as a pilot that will evolve to a more-complex environment. Enterprises that can consider longer-term and more-comprehensive approaches to content networking, including using the hierarchy of needs model, will have stronger, better-performing, longer-lasting solutions. Although upfront capital costs likely will be higher, we believe that enterprises that take a more-strategic view of their IDC requirements will decrease their total costs by at least 15 percent, and will significantly increase the performance and reliability of their 28 October

6 infrastructure by enabling it to more quickly meet the changing needs of their businesses. 28 October