Networking is moving at the same accelerated pace as the rest of the technology industry. Rapid-fire deployment motivated by a whole new set of requirements coming from the enterprise is changing the landscape of the classic network.

Ron Winward, director of network engineering at ServerCentral, an IT infrastructure provider and a Juniper Networks, Inc. partner, joined John Furrier and Stu Miniman, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during Juniper Networks NXTWORK 2015 to examine the changing environment of networking.

Exciting again

When asked about what’s new in networking, Winward said, “For a long time networking was stale, and today it’s exciting again.” He noted that the customer is driving the change with the advent of apps and the need for real-time analytics and data. And, he added, insight into the network is critical for companies to either mitigate problems or a possible attack.

Winward described the networking climate over the past year to 18 months as grabbing hold of where the industry is, where it is going and finding structure. Each customer ServerCentral works with has its own individual needs, and Winward sees a variety of solutions in place. “We are a provider who delivers a wide scope of custom network solutions,” he said.

Needle-and-thread deployment

Whether the customer wants to deploy metal or just some virtualization, Winward sees a need for both, and with moving to hybrid cloud, he has observed some challenges. “Metal and cloud infrastructures rely on networking to stitch them together,” he explained.

Winward advised companies in transition to do the research, know the engineers and take data center tours before jumping all in to a new network.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Juniper Networks NXTWORK 2015. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE