The intersection between Network and Virtualisation

The intersection of Network and Virtualisation is becoming critical. We have passed the point of deployment inside the datacenter (not at the edge), and now there are more virtual NICs and virtual ports (on vSwitch) than physical ones. Also, it is common for virtual switch (dvSwitch) to have >1000 ports, which makes it a very large & critical switch. Just for a comparison, a physical switch normally max around 768 ports.

We are also seeing network services (LB, NAT, FW, DHCP) moving from physical appliance --> virtual appliance --> kernel module in the hypervisor. So the hypervisor becomes more than just for Server. It is also for Network.

We are also seeing network switch develop integration to vSphere. vCenter is able to configure the physical switch, and physical switch has VM-awareness.

Lastly, there are also changes in the Network industry itself. VXLAN was born, and SDN became the next big thing.