Well, we have one more topic to discuss.
It's a little bit of a bonus topic,
but it's something worth noting,
and that is the idea of virtual network functions,
or VNFs, which by the way,
sometimes is referred to as network function virtualization,
or NFV.
Yeah, both of these acronyms are used for the same thing.
But here's the idea.
We're gonna take everything we learned
about how virtual machines work,
and we're going to apply it to network appliances.
Any kind of network appliance, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Any kind of network appliance,
or network function,
that we typically deploy as physical appliances.
So that F here, that function,
is referring to the thing that the network appliance does.
But what would be good examples of network appliances?
Well, a firewall is a pretty good example
of a network appliance.
It plugs into network switches,
and it's sort of this end host type of concept.
And so firewall works.
We can also think of wireless LAN controllers, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
We can also think of wireless LAN controllers,
and believe it or not,
routers fit into this category as well.
I guess they should pluralize all of these.
Rowers, firewalls, wireless LAN controllers.
There are other examples of this.
Essentially, again,
it's everything that isn't a switch.
We wouldn't consider a switch to be a network function
that we can virtualize.
Yeah, we could say, well, isn't that what a V switch is,
but what we're, again, trying to drive at here
is turning these into a virtual machine. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
is turning these into a virtual machine.
And the V switch communicates between virtual machines.
It's not actually a virtual machine in and of itself.
So when we think about the Cisco Portfolio,
we can think of virtual routers like the Catalyst 8000V.
As a virtual router,
we love to deploy these into cloud environments,
but we can deploy it into any virtual environment,
including our virtual hosts inside of our data centers,
if it makes sense to do so.
We also have things like the firewall
or the fire power threat defense virtual appliance,
FTV, although Cisco's calling it these days, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
FTV, although Cisco's calling it these days,
the secure firewall threat defense virtual.
And so the name is maybe a little bit different these days.
We also have the virtual wireless LAN controller.
When we look at the 9800, Cisco has a 9800CL,
which is short for cloud,
but we can deploy this as a virtual appliance
into our virtual environment.
Now, Cisco actually supported something called the ENCS, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Now, Cisco actually supported something called the ENCS,
this stood for the Enterprise Network Compute System.
And yes, this has gone end of life very recently
as of the time of this recording,
but for many years, the ENCS was a piece of hardware
that could run multiple VNFs.
So I could deploy this box
and it had enough resources to maybe run two
or even three of these different network function
virtualization.
So I could run maybe at a branch office here, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So I could run maybe at a branch office here,
a router and a firewall,
and potentially even a wireless LAN controller
all on the same physical hardware.
And I could actually run networking
between all of these devices.
It was a really slick system.
The reason I bring it up
is because these are actually still deployed
in a lot of enterprises.
So be aware that these exist.
These were the ENCS 5000 series,
I believe it was the 5,100 and 5,400.
And so if you see these out there, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And so if you see these out there,
you'll know what they are now.
They are hosting virtual routers and firewalls
and wireless LAN controllers
and any other network function virtualization
that Cisco came up with.
But be aware that, again,
Cisco has a wide ranging portfolio of virtual appliances.
This is not an exhaustive list
by any stretch of the imagination.
They have a lot of these types of functions out there
and understand that, hey,
there might be a place for us to deploy a virtual instance
of a network appliance WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
of a network appliance
rather than physically screwing something
into a rack and networking it in.