Although the power of data is changing the business world every day, all that information wouldn’t be of much use if it couldn’t travel across networks. Networking is seeing as much change and innovation as any other part of the digital revolution, and smart businesses are keeping an eye on this market.

To gain some insight into these changes, John Furrier and Dave Vellante of theCUBE, from the SilconANGLE Media team, spoke with Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of Arista Networks, Inc. at the VMworld 2015 conference.

The interview opened up with a question about Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Ullal replied that SDN had gone from marketing hype to a reality that offered openness and programmability to clients. It was seeing use not only in traditional networking roles, but also in the area of workloads and workflows.

Uptime and the Cloud

Modern networks can no longer afford downtime, Ullal said, and traditional means of ensuring uptime are no longer sufficient or desired by the customer. To achieve the goal of high availability, companies need a system that can perform smart upgrades in real time.

Networking also has to follow trends in the tech world, such as supporting the Cloud and partnering with the major players in the tech industry. One of these trends involves going Cloud-native, that is, bringing the Cloud experience to public, private and hybrid applications.

Opportunities for the next generation

The conversation turned toward the next generation and what they could do to be part of the future of technology. Ullal agreed there are opportunities for the younger generation, which they can find by building on the foundation of a solid education. She suggested the best way to reach the future was for young people to follow their dreams, but go one step at a time.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE