Computer networks aren’t getting any simpler. The explosion of internal and external data sources and the rapid adoption of high bandwidth media sources like video, require more sophisticated networks and an ever-rising challenge to manage them. Datamation reports on the latest efforts by Cisco to bring new technology to address the management problem. The company’s new FabricPath technology follows a key Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard in development for managing networks. But Cisco’s not the only networking vendor looking to include IETF’s Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) standard in its networking gear.
As enterprise and datacenter networks become increasingly large and complex, vendors and networking standards bodies like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) are aiming to make management easier. That’s where Cisco’s FabricPath technology comes in as a sweeping new approach to network infrastructure.
FabricPath is Cisco’s version of the IETF’s Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) network management standard. Although TRILL remains still in development in the IETF, Cisco says FabricPath is capable of reducing the number of switches that are required for large server deployments while maximizing the available bandwidth.
