The more efficiently companies can use their existing IT assets—servers, storage, networking and other equipment—the better their return on investment. Efficient use can also help you defer the purchase of new equipment and significantly reduce power and cooling costs. Companies are looking at virtualization software as a way to increase utilization on servers, but some business leaders are already wondering about the operational complexity this strategy brings.

Virtualization has often focused around servers, and to a degree, storage. Yet greater efficiencies can be gained by applying virtualization to your entire network. With some key technological advancements, combined with reconfiguration of operational processes and structures, the network can play a key role in creating a virtual infrastructure for increased efficiency.

The goal is to build a pervasive, scalable infrastructure that bridges previously siloed domains and unifies them into a fabric of shared, virtual services that can be provisioned in a fraction of the time it takes to configure a traditional application environment.