EXPERT OPINION
This single source of truth has already
been realised in the most advanced data
centre automation solutions and it marks
a very significant step towards the self-
operating network or data centre.
Root cause identification
Another vital step is ‘root cause
identification’. Once you have a single
source of truth encapsulating both what
the network should be doing and what it
is actually doing in real time, then further
intelligence can study the incoming
telemetry, note any irregularities, outages
or performance degradation and not only
report them but also trace them back to
the underlying root cause.
Whether it is cars, computers or
domestic appliances, there is nothing
more maddening than an intermittent
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
fault. Something is wrong but it all works
perfectly when taken to be serviced.
Whereas the service operator studies the
performance during inspection, a proper
intent-based system keeps a full ongoing
record of when and how things went
wrong, together with the full knowledge of
the infrastructure and component parts.
The combination of a single source of
truth plus AI can trace back from erratic
symptoms to pinpoint the root cause.
The majority of data centres are adopting
leaf-spine or ‘Clos’ network topology to
provide better application performance. The
traditional three-tier hierarchy generated a
lot of traffic up and down the system, while
the ‘flatter’ leaf-spine topology places hosts
at equal distances, and applications behave
more predictably. The result is a higher
bandwidth, lower latency, while relatively
easier to manage network.
THE COMBINATION
OF A SINGLE
SOURCE OF
TRUTH PLUS AI
CAN TRACE BACK
FROM ERRATIC
SYMPTOMS TO
PINPOINT THE
ROOT CAUSE.
Issue 07
41