Spine-leaf architecture, virtualization and VXLAN, SAN vs. NAS storage networking, redundancy and high availability, and multi-site disaster recovery design.
This module moves this program's switching and routing fluency from Modules 5 and 6 into the data center, where the dominant traffic pattern flips from north-south to east-west and the design goal shifts accordingly — from a hierarchy built to reach a client efficiently, to a fabric built so any server can reach any other server with predictable, low latency and every physical link actually carrying traffic instead of sitting blocked by spanning tree.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why spine-leaf topology guarantees a fixed two-hop path between any two servers, how VXLAN lets virtual machines keep the Layer 2 adjacency they need for live migration on top of a Layer 3 routed fabric, and how RTO and RPO requirements drive the choice between active-passive and active-active multi-site design — the same reliability thinking this program's data center project case study puts into practice in full.