Like server virtualization before it, software defined networking (SDN) has been lingering in the IT industry for a decade or more. While the advantages of making the network programmable have similar attributes to server virtualization – agility, cost efficiency, better centralized control – the challenges preventing mainstream adoption have been sufficient to keep SDN on the fringe of networking technologies.

The application economy is an expression that recognizes that every business today, from apparel to energy, is being rewritten by software. According to a recent research report by Vanson Bourne, a majority of enterprises today say the application economy is changing their industry – while 44 percent say it is directly impacting their organizations. SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) – and the software designed to rewrite how we provision and manage networks – will change the way networks are designed, deployed, operated and managed.

NFV is the proverbial “killer app” for SDN

SDN is an architectural change to networking focusing on three areas: abstraction, centralization and automation. NFV is the virtualization of network services in order to reduce network equipment cost and add velocity; it is an SDN use-case for enterprises and communications service providers (CSPs) alike.

SDN and NFV bring agility to the network domain, similar to how systems and compute virtualization brought agility to systems deployment and enabled dynamic and automated resource allocation in line with the business demand.

Why does the app economy move SDN to the mainstream?

IT agility is necessary to drive success in today’s application economy. New applications and business services and the new infrastructure to support them are now deployed at an incredibly rapid rate, and with increased customization. Without SDN/NFV, it will not be possible to satisfy rapidly changing network requirements and to change them again as the business changes.

In the app economy, IT requirements may change frequently, as they are driven by an ever-changing business landscape. An agile, SDN/NFV environment will be a requirement to achieve the agility and efficiency necessary.

What’s holding SDN/NFV back?

Increased agility has its challenges. Customers and network equipment vendors are often at odds when it comes to adopting new technology (customers) and supporting the standards that new technologies leverage (vendors). But worse, the potential for chaos is overwhelming because legacy network management tools were not designed to keep up with the dynamic nature of SDN/NFV networks.

The current business climate requires all the benefits of agile SDN and NFV environments without losing all the attributes of predictability, reliability and stability that we strived for in the currently pervasive, static network paradigm. The new management tools that SDN/NFV will require must be agile, real time (nearly) and proactive.

Why associate SDN/NFV management with CA Technologies?

CA Technologies, with its long history in multi-vendor, multi-technology infrastructure management, understands the challenges that SDN and NFV will present and has the experience and insight to lead the future of the software-defined world.

We recently joined the OpenDaylight Project – an open source project to advance SDN – with the expectation that our expertise in network management will be of benefit to various working groups and our developers in turn will benefit from the collaborative nature of open source communities.

For more insight, see our new white paper “Managing the Software Defined World”.

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