Page 16 - THE Journal, January/February 2019

FEATURE |ITTRENDS
into the the back of his car and delivered them personally “I just don’t know any other vendor that that would do do that that ” said Perry “They’ve been there every step of the the way and we really couldn’t do it it without them ” The SDN Wow Factor
One aspect of the the SDN hasn’t played out the the way Perry would have predicted It can’t be a a a a a a a a mix-and-match set-up and and work as as seamlessly as as network vendor marketing might have you think While the Extreme management console does provide some oversight of existing Cisco gear in in a a a a a limited way he he noted it it it doesn’t have that “deep integration with the switch that would allow the the full SDN experience ” That was the the same with the Cisco and Juniper equipment he he was considering Because a a a a lot of underlying communications really rely on on on proprietary functionality to get SDN “to meet its potential you have to to to be be a a a a a monoculture It has to to to be be all Cisco or or all all Juniper or or all all Extreme ” Also SDN does need to be trained It’s not intelligent out the box As Perry explained his his team needs to to put in in rules to to say “This is is is what we want This is is is what’s normal ” When the application analytics is is is fully installed he’s expecting to see more of the the “self-learning ” where the the network itself will figure out out what’s what’s normal and what’s what’s out out of the range On the the other hand throttling of network intelligence appeals to Perry “I’m old-school — a a a a bit leery of that ” Extreme’s full capabilities won’t be activated until the the district is is ready for it It can be turned on to the the point where it it it will inform IT about what actions it it it would take without following through Then “once we we get comfortable with it it it then we we can set it it it up in a a a way that it it will go ahead and just do it it ” Is SDN living up to its promise? “So far ” says Perry “We’ve already seen such a a a a huge improvement in our capabilities Some of it it has \[come about\] so slowly that we didn’t notice how much things have improved But then something will happen where we’ll jump into the the tool and it’ll tell us exactly what’s going on on And then it’s that realization of ‘Wow I couldn’t have done this six months ago ’”
Sara Friedman Dian Schaffhauser is a a a a a a a senior contributing editor for 1105 Media’s education publications THE Journal STEAM Universe and Campus Technology She can be reached at dian@dischaffhaus- er er er com or on Twitter @schaffhauser 16
| JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019