Software Defined Network (SDN): Virtualization of Networking

Software-defined Networking (SDN) is a new method for defining, building and managing networks.  SDN separates the workings of a network into something called  a “control plane” and a “forwarding plane”.  The advantage of the approach is that decouples the ‘control’ from the underlying physical infrastructure, and because of that, it is able to support a ‘network fabric’ that includes components from multiple vendors.  The controlling piece for an SDN is a software application, and since the control is defined in software rather than embedded in the hardware, administrators of a system can shape the workings of their network to the changing needs of their business.

A survey by Juniper Networks found businesses were evenly divided into two groups.  52.5 percent said that they have plans to adopt SDN while the remaining 47.5 percent said that they have no plans to adopt it.  A similar survey by Infonetics Research found that in North America about 45 percent of businesses are already using SDN or evaluating it with a target of installing it before the end of 2015.  And by the end of 2016, Infonetics thinks that 87 percent of businesses will be using SDN.  Juniper Networks is also optimistic on the outlook of SDN but expects it to be another five more years before 77 percent of business networks will use SDN as a component of their networking mix.

Mark Belk, national government chief architect for Juniper, said that “last year we had a lot of hype on SDN, and we still have hype on SDN, but last year it was very, very new.  This year we see more implementation, more understanding, but the role of SDN is also changing, morphing and expanding.”

Cliff Grossner, directing analyst at Infonetics Research, said that “there’s still some work to do on the part of SDN vendors.  Expectations for SDN are clear, but there are still serious concerns about the maturity of the technology and the business case. Vendors need to work with their lead enterprise customers to complete lab trials and provide public demonstrations of success.  SDN spells opportunity for existing and new vendors, and the time to act is now. The leaders in the SDN market serving the enterprise will be solidified during the next two years as lab trials give way to live production deployments in 2015 and significant growth by 2016.