In 2012, much of the industry was focused on what\u2019s going inside the data center to enable cloud computing. As we move into 2013 and beyond, enterprise IT will need to consider the network that connects the data centers \u2013 particularly how these inter-data center networks need to change to support new cloud use cases and associated network requirements for bandwidth scalability, low latency, security, virtualization and automation. As network specialists, Ciena has been concentrating on solving the connectivity issues between data centers, and data centers to the cloud.
\nThere are multiple reasons for this. First, enterprise IT organizations are highly motivated to drive efficiencies. Enterprise is already deriving efficiencies from its network \u2013 first through data center consolidation, then virtualization. The cloud promises to offer up to 25 percent infrastructure savings on IT services and hardware expenses, according to some studies. In turn, the network is also a key enabler for cloud service providers to operate multiple data centers as a shared pool of virtual data centers. We\u2019ve found through our own research that this can enable a 35 percent reduction in total cloud data center resources.<\/p>\n