The purpose of modern data center networking is to accommodate multiple data center tenants with a variety of workloads. In such a network, servers are the components that provide users (and the programs working on their behalf) with requested services.
Overview
Today, few business workloads – and progressively fewer consumer and entertainment workloads – are executed on single computers, hence the need for data center networking. Networks provide servers, clients, applications, and middleware with a common map with which to stage the execution of workloads, and also with which to manage access to the data they produce. A conventional data center network comprises: servers that manage workloads and respond to client requests; switches that connect devices together; routers that perform packet forwarding functions; controllers that manage the workflow between network devices; gateways that serve as the junctions between data center networks and the broader Internet; and clients that act as consumers of the information in data packets
