BOSTON, March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As the data center has progressed, it has struggled to cope with growing virtualized data traffic, and network virtualization is the answer to those problems, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider (www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

Network Virtualization Comes of Age in the Data Center examines network virtualization in the data center, focusing on the importance of network virtualization, and the technologies and protocols that support it. The report also profiles 14 leading vendors in the market.

For a list of companies analyzed in this report, http://twimgs.com/audiencedevelopment/LRHR/PDFS/spiti0313_companies.pdf

"Server and storage virtualization technology has revolutionized the data center in recent years, consolidating physical hardware resources and optimizing CPU, RAM and hard disk capacity to help deliver maximum performance with minimum power consumption, faster provisioning and simplified management," says Martin Courtney, Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the report. "But the underlying network that those virtualized servers and storage rely on to communicate with each other has failed to keep pace with parallel innovation efforts and data center operators supervising growing volumes of virtualized data traffic beginning to bump against the scalability, flexibility and management limitations that traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 physical network architecture imposes on the virtual world."

The need for change has become particularly pressing in large scale data center environments that are provisioning, migrating and tearing down thousands of virtual machines every minute, Courtney says. "Network virtualization technology is clearly of most practical use in solving virtual machine scalability issues in larger data centers run by telcos, cloud service providers and Internet companies hosting high volumes of multi-tenanted virtual workloads, either in single or multiple locations," he continues. "But while the large scale requirements of big cloud service providers and search engines do not necessarily correlate to the needs of the enterprise, vendors are busy trying to convince themselves that network virtualization technology and SDN initiatives will trickle down into corporate data center environments."

Key findings of Network Virtualization Comes of Age in the Data Center include:

• Data center networks are struggling to cope with the explosive growth in virtualized data traffic.
• Cloud service delivery demands a more scalable, flexible network that is easier to manage.
• Network hardware vendors are focusing their efforts on virtual network overlays and software-defined networking.
• Virtual network overlays are built on a confusing mix of standardized and proprietary protocols and platforms.
• SPB, TRILL, LISP, ARMD, VXLAN, NVGRE, STT and MLAG all have backing from different vendors.
• The underlying technology remains immature, and the market has seen few customer deployments.
• Adoption forces changes in the way vendors design and sell L2/L3 switches.

Network Virtualization Comes of Age in the Data Center is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware. For more information on all of Heavy Reading's Insider services, please visit www.heavyreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

Jeff Geddes
Account Manager
Heavy Reading
303-997-9135
geddes@lightreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-747-4110
jennifer.baker@ubm.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)

Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the global telecom industry. As a division of UBM Tech (tech.ubm.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

SOURCE Heavy Reading