The acquisition of Composite Software by Cisco has created quite a stir in the enterprise IT community.  Data virtualization and networking -how does that make sense?

One should assume that before it invested$180M in Composite, Cisco must have had something in mind.

And a recent report entitled "Data Virtualization Meets the Network" from analyst firm EMA provides several pretty clear insights into just what that something might be.

According to EMA, "sophisticated users and applications, along with less expensive hardware and software, better and faster technology, and new valuable data sources are causing a shift away from single platforms solutions such as enterprise data warehouses towards a more diverse or hybrid ecosystem (watch video) focused on matching data type, workload and platform capabilities to execute these workload.

Hybrid strategies allow for deeper business insights and more sophisticated workloads but often demand more than traditional data integration tools can deliver. As more platforms are utilized and data is more diverse and geographically separated, data virtualization becomes a solution that's critical for many companies to utilize."

So that is the case for data virtualization.  But why combine data virtualization and networking.  The report addresses this point directly.  "As data virtualization has matured to meet these new demands, the networks sitting at either end of the data virtualization technology, have become the bottlenecks to speed and scale.

Data virtualization technologies access data where it resides versus physically moving it to other platforms.This model allows for a more agile environment saving time and money when managing data in complex environments. Data virtualization platforms must rely upon query optimization along relatively fixed network paths to enable the transmission of this data." Check this video dialog with Shawn Rogers, VP of Research Enterprise Management Associates.

"The acquisition of Composite Software is a wise move for Cisco as it combines the functionality of data virtualization and Cisco's ability to understand the network as well as enact change within it to allow data virtualization to be executed at an even higher level than previous technologies allowed."

This blog covers the high points of EMA's research report.  If you would like to see the complete version click here.
You may want also read Shawn Rogers blog Data Virtualization and the Network = Disruption