Business requirements, especially in the next-generation data center, will drive the need for network virtualization. As the network progressively becomes more critical to the enterprise and its ability to do business, an always-on, scalable, and efficient infrastructure and architecture is necessary. A key goal is to expand the network capabilities while at the same time reducing its complexity.

The return on investment (ROI) for deployment of a new technology must be attractive enough to move forward. Shortest Path Bridging provides the value of network virtualization with the overall ease of deployment and on-going maintenance. TRILL provides some of the same basic values as SPB; however, TRILL is more complex and doesn’t provide the additional feature augmentation that Avaya brings with SPB. There are substantial differences between the two technologies. SPB delivers simplicity and elegance over the life of the network, along with the additional Layer 3 features that enterprises need.