Connecting cloud, data and intelligence, Inspur Network aims to build a fully connected network based on business in 2018

[51CTO.com original article] On August 29, the two-day Inspur World 2018 event was successfully held in Chengdu, the "Land of Abundance". Under the theme of the conference "Cloud Data Empowers the Smart Future", reporters found through communication that domestic users' demand for network transformation has become more urgent: How to build a future-oriented network to fully support enterprise users to accelerate digital transformation? More than 100 industry insiders gathered at the "Innovation Drives Network Smart Connection Future" sub-forum to reveal the answer with Inspur Network and discuss the value of the network in "Cloud Data Empowerment". At the event, Inspur Network also launched the "Business-based Full Connectivity Strategy" and a series of new products, and jointly launched a new partner growth plan with Ingram Micro to create a new network ecosystem.

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The first step of the intelligent network strategy is to start with a fully connected network based on services

Zhang Haitao, vice president of Inspur Group, first made a keynote speech on the scene. He said that in the cloud world of 2021, 90% of applications are deployed in a multi-cloud environment, and data will play a huge potential in it. So the question is, how to efficiently go to the cloud? How to integrate data? The answer given by Zhang Haitao is "connection is an effective way to realize cloud empowerment." However, Zhang Haitao also revealed that this "connection" is not the same as "connection", because Inspur Network has found in the process of serving customers that the function of the network is no longer a simple connection, but it needs to be able to adaptively adjust network resources to match customer applications. "Users need a network platform that integrates integration, management, and services." Zhang Haitao concluded that such a network platform should be able to achieve end-to-end management virtualization, comprehensive perception visualization, fast and simple automation, and also have end-to-end security for defense and compliance, which can ensure 100% available full connectivity.

Zhang Haitao used 16 words to describe the future intelligent network platform in Inspur Network's cognition, namely overall design, overall deployment, management distribution, and security assurance. He also added that the future intelligent network should have three forms: business-based intelligence, management-based visualization, and development-based flexibility.

"As the trend of cloud decentralization and application edgeization becomes more and more obvious, especially in a multi-cloud environment, unified management of applications, security, and interfaces has become a rigid demand, and users have high requirements for local operation and maintenance, service networks, and information resource programmability." He said that under such strong demand, whether it can help users achieve elastic and rapid deployment in different clouds, and whether it can quickly achieve transparent connection between east and west or north and south, are all tests of the service capabilities, delivery capabilities, and consulting capabilities of Inspur Network and its partners. "Based on this, Inspur Network has launched a business-based fully connected network, creating a new generation of network architecture based on software definition, providing full network product line coverage, providing customers with standardized products from the source, and providing customizable comprehensive services."

Inspur Network launches multiple new products to embrace the era of full connectivity based on services

Chen Weimin, vice president of Inspur Network, also gave a more detailed explanation of network construction in the era of fully digital enterprises. He first asked a question on the spot: "Fully digital business is developing rapidly at the speed of software updates. Has the network kept up?" The answer is actually not optimistic. He introduced that the network is facing the impact of digitalization, lacking business insight and informatization, and becoming more and more complex. Network operation and management are often inefficient and failures occur frequently. To make matters worse, security attacks are everywhere.

So what is the solution? Chen Weimin said that the network evolution of fully digital enterprise IT will enter the era of business-based self-learning networks, that is, forming a "business-oriented" network with self-learning and closed-loop control. In this network, open source, SDN, and big data DevOps are the technical foundations based on the business-based fully digital network. He took SDN as an example. SDN means a decoupled open network architecture, and the control plane, data plane, and management plane can all have a unified application strategy.

At the network sub-forum, Inspur Network also held a grand new product launch event. According to the reporter, the new products released this time include Inspur Intelligent Cloud Engine (ICE 2.0) SDN controller, the new data center core switch CN12900 series, and the newly upgraded high-performance switch CN12700 series that supports 100G/25G, and other intelligent network products.

It is worth noting that in the field of enterprise networks, Inspur Networks has also launched a new upgraded nationally produced new generation of 10G SDN switches and other products. Taking the new generation of data center 10G SDN switches as an example, it uses domestic switching chips, which are independently controllable. The chip architecture has been specially optimized for software-defined network capabilities and can meet the needs of large flow tables of data center switches. In addition, the switching capacity is as high as 2.4Tbps, supports 48 10G optical ports + 6 40G QSFP+ interfaces, and full line-speed forwarding. Its high performance is also among the best in similar domestic products.

Resolving the problem of information silos and gaining user recognition

When talking about the sharing of the concept of future intelligent networks, the voice of users is naturally indispensable. Zhang Yuanfu, general manager of Shandong Iron and Steel Group Shanxin Software Co., Ltd., also shared Shandong Iron and Steel Group's understanding of informatization at the scene. He revealed that the biggest problem that steel mills have faced in informatization is the problem of information islands. If it is only for a certain production unit in a certain steel plant, the information island has been eliminated, but from the perspective of the group, there is still a problem of information islands between different industries. In addition, he told reporters that the integrated application of big data still lacks transmission and interaction between different systems; the complexity of operation and maintenance management and the security of data need to be paid special attention and improved.

It is understood that in order to meet the needs of Shandong Iron and Steel, Inspur Network and Shandong Iron and Steel Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Inspur to build a cloud platform for Shandong Iron and Steel Group, adopt the SDN model to rebuild the original application system, use the distributed storage model for data transmission, and migrate the original system to the cloud. Facts have proved that in this way, the utilization rate of Shandong Iron and Steel Group's original resources has been greatly improved. In the future, the two parties will also focus on strengthening cooperation in the fields of industrial Internet platforms and intelligent manufacturing. Relying on the Inspur Industrial Internet platform, the relevant data flows inside and outside the enterprise will run through the entire business process of design, procurement, production, marketing, management, etc., and build innovative business models of the Industrial Internet such as intelligent production, personalized customization, and networked collaboration. Together, we will create leading solutions for intelligent manufacturing and smart parks in the steel industry, and realize the green, intelligent, sustainable and healthy development of Shandong Iron and Steel Group.

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During the conference, the reporter has been thinking about a question, that is, what exactly is the advantage of Inspur Network? Some people think that it is because Inspur Network stands on the shoulders of giants, with both the strong network accumulation of senior global network manufacturers and strong strength in domestic market channels. But the reporter thinks the answer is not just that. Having a good DNA is only the innate foundation, and acquired efforts and innovation are more important. In front of the videos of user practice cases in the exhibition hall, in the speeches of customers in the Inspur Network sub-forum, and in the familiar introduction of the business by the technicians at the booth, what the reporter felt was that it was a high-quality network supplier that started from user needs, started from user business, and had everything from local services to local products. It was not complacent with its birth background, and did not stop at product performance, but was a "new star" that was full of innovation and vitality. Such an Inspur Network has a promising future.

[51CTO original article, please indicate the original author and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]