Its cool to be a platform (again)

It seems to me that platforms, like drainpipe trousers, were initially very cool, then went out of fashion and now (judging by my son’s attire) are cool again.

In my simplistic world, things are cool when they have an attributable value, in my son’s case that’s a ‘dance floor differential’ in the more sterile world of IT its more to do with agility and simplicity.

Originally the use of the word platform, in the context of IT, meant the underlying computer system and denoted a complete software programming development environment with subsystems, language and associated libraries and binaries.  Microsoft .NET or Java are classic examples.

In recent times, it seems to me, a platform has come to mean something different and more generic.  Today, I would argue, a platform stands for anything that you can ‘build upon and integrate with’.  For example, Facebook is a platform because you can access your account through a browser, or as a connected app on your smartphone, use it as a web service, and crucially (for the definition to work), use it as a platform for other apps.  In other words a platform is a construct that enables multiple products, services, applications, to be built within the same technical framework.

Bringing it closer to home, considering enterprise computing and the data centre; while the development of technologies such as virtualisation, cloud computing, mobile applications, and the Internet of Things have moved ahead at breakneck pace, the corporate network has traditionally lagged behind.  In spite of its obvious criticality as a core area of corporate infrastructure, it has often been the poor relation when it comes to investment.  Instead of supporting business agility the network (and the data centre) have become bywords for status quo and IT ‘bottlenecks’.

But all that is changing.

What have platforms ever done for us?

Well, organisations will invest in platforms on the basis that future products can be developed faster and cheaper and integrate with similarly built technologies, than if they built them standalone.  True plug and play at work.

At the heart of this are the key points that for platforms, to be successful,

• The Platform itself cannot restrict the higher order apps / services to only executing in performance silo’s - it needs to provide the same operational platform characteristics but be capable of responding to growing and shrinking demands; the platform should be fluid.
• They perform a vital function that higher level apps need to call on for them to execute to functional spec.
• Those calls are made via openly published and standards (or de-facto standards based) API’s – freedom from the tyranny of lock-in

 So, are Networks a platform?

The word platform has always been loosely associated with or coupled to networking.  Simply put the network carries the traffic therefore it’s a platform, right?

Well, not necessarily so. To my earlier definition, if a platform is something to build upon and integrate with, the piece that’s been fundamentally missing is the integration piece.

It’s clear to me that the worlds of ‘IT and IP’ are fusing together, some of the old world boundaries and ‘ships in the night’ behaviour will disappear and the very definition of what is a network will change.  This is not a bad thing, in many ways it could and should spur on a new wave of innovation in one place that needs it more than ever.

The Datacentre

Why?

Quite simply the traditional layering of apps / servers / storage and networking within a datacentre will simply act as ‘chasm’s of confusion’ which will ultimately hold back todays datacentre from being a centre of innovation and business value.

The big trends such as IOT, Cloud, Mobility and Big Data can ONLY deliver on their promise IF the vision of ‘Datacentre 4.0’ is realised – a truly automated ‘ONE’ environment that can handle the massive traffic and transactional explosion driven by those trends.

For that to happen, we need to transform from chasms of confusion to a platform for progress.

The platform is cool again.

Rallying cry.  A call to action!

I would argue that recent developments such as Software Defined Networks and Network Functions Virtualisation have fired a rocket through the networking industry. 

Networking organisations that have embraced these technologies are helping to create the network platform layer that organisations desire and whose datacentres demand.

If you are responsible for datacentre strategy, architecture, design, implementation or support with a particular interest in the extended network and security elements at the very foundation of your datacentre and believe that an Open Networking platform has a compelling resonance, we want to meet you!

Take a look at and register for one of the 8 ‘Open Disruptive Decade’ summits that Juniper Networks is running between September and December in various city locations across Europe and the Middle East.  No hype, just open speaking and frank views.  It might open your mind to the reality that the network as a platform is here and its cool, again.

Time to get my drainpipe trousers out of the wardrobe.