Cisco introduces SONA

Cisco introduces SONA
SONA stands for Service Oriented Network Architecture, a concept very close to the existing Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). While SOA allows different services to interact, SONA provides one architecture that performs the interaction automatically. The network is seen as a common element tying together many of an enterprise's IT functions. The network becomes a platform; it will deliver any application to any terminal, on any technology (wireline, mobile, ...). Trying to avoid direct competition with its partners' business applications, Cisco positions itself as a provider of "collaborative" enterprise applications such as IP voice and video -- applications that connect people to each other, while others connect people to computers.

SONA is an umbrella with two main pillars: applications delivery to remote branch offices or consumers, and Application Oriented Networking (AON), a concept introduced in June that allows the network to read and interpret the messages it transmits. Of course, the main rational for customers to adopt SONA is money savings and better assets utilization. But the weakest point is that this concept is best tailored for an all-Cisco architecture. Who knows how well SONA would work in a multi-vendor environment? Will enterprises put all their applications in one basket? Proprietary systems and software are not currently the market trend; Cisco will have now to convince customers.