What is Network Integration?

In today’s IT world, it can be challenging to appreciate how far technology has come. There once was a time when data centers were covered in sprawling cables everywhere. Times have changed, though, and we now have network integration. So that begs the questions, what is network integration, and why is it helpful?

Let’s explain how network cabinets used to be. Before network integration, server racks could hold a variety of equipment. For instance, they might have a UPS on the bottom of the rack, a server or two in the middle, and a storage appliance. Each rack also had a switch mounted at the top of it.
Each device in the server rack needed to be connected to that switch. Some devices, like servers, may have multiple network cables running between them and the switch. If there were other server racks near it, redundant connections might be run to those switches, too.

This increased the complexity of managing server racks significantly since large bundles of network cables needed to run through the server racks and to other switches.
Network engineers needed to manage these switches by hand. That means maintaining perfect configurations, managing the spanning tree protocol, etc…

Then vendors, like Cisco, created blade systems. These blade systems are built around a chassis. Each chassis has built-in slots for blade servers, a power distribution system, and fabric interconnects.

Each blade server in the chassis connects to those fabric interconnects through internal traces. This moved the network adapter from inside the server itself to the server rack. Each fabric interconnect holds multiple virtual network adapters. To the servers, these network adapters look like internal components. These fabric interconnects look like a single network adapter to the rest of the network, too.

This reduced the cabling problem. Instead of running multiple network cables between devices to the top-of-rack switch, you only need to run one. Likewise, these fabric interconnects are managed by a controller application. That means each fabric interconnect could be managed simultaneously. This makes network administration far easier.

Using Cisco’s UCS equipment has other advantages, too. So, sit back, get comfortable, and watch this video.


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