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Cisco's nosy mailman
July 13, 2005
Do you want your mailman to read your mail? Cisco Systems hopes you do. A few weeks ago, the giant networking firm quietly introduced a new technology, called application-oriented networking, or AON, that will allow its routers to decipher the content of the messages they process, taking data from one software application and delivering it to another application in a form that the receiving application can read. The routers themselves will thus be able to play a central role in automating the integration of applications, doing more of what middleware systems like IBM's Websphere currently do. In theory, the smarter routers would cut out one layer of complexity from software integration.
The mailman analogy is useful. Think of a traditional router as a traditional mailman. He looks at the address on the envelope of a packet of information, and then he routes the packet to the specified mailbox. All he can do is transport messages; he's blind to what's inside the envelope. In the AON model, the mailman opens every envelope and reads what's inside. When he gets to your house, he doesn't just stuff everything into your mailbox, leaving you to sort it out. He walks into your house and distributes your mail according to its purpose - the bill goes here, the personal letter goes there, and so on.
Smart routers make a lot of sense. By allowing the network to become the translator as well as the transporter, they can make the overall IT infrastructure more efficient and flexible. They would also provide an important building block for utility computing, enabling much of the integration work that now goes on inside companies to shift outside, to a shared infrastructure.
There are drawbacks as well. Cisco's AON technology is proprietary; if it takes off, Cisco could gain a lot of power over the critical application-integration function. The more powerful the mailman, the greater his ability to put the squeeze on his customers. So companies should be wary of Cisco's move, but they should also welcome it. Automating the integration of business applications is the key to a mature, reliable and efficient IT infrastructure. The more innovation in this area, the better.
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Comments
It is interesting how this article relates to the warning by Dan Razzell that "Everybody wants to talk about grids and utility computing ... but those who promote them the most seem to have the least experience in what their deployment actually entails." (http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/07/around_and_abou.php)
Posted by: Filip Verhaeghe at July 14, 2005 02:14 AM
The only problem with this idea is that if the applications and services encrypt the messages that they send to one another (say by using SSL/TLS) the AON nodes won't be able to make heads or tails out of the content. This means that if you want to use AON you have to trust all the machines on the network in which it operates. This is not feasible for large IT shops.
Posted by: Gilbert Pilz at July 28, 2005 02:59 PM
See www.trustedcomputinggroup.org
Interoperable, encrypted messaging with the end-user in control, not Cisco.
Posted by: ordaj at July 29, 2005 12:24 PM
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