Dull. Static. Unchanging.

When network managers are asked to describe the nature of their jobs and work environments, not many would use these words as descriptors. However, with the advent of software-defined networking (SDN), and all the dynamic change it is set to bring, the networks of today may seem downright static in comparison when folks look back a few years from now.

In recent years, the IT ecosystem has gone through a number of fundamental transformations, and with the emergence of technologies like SDN and network function virtualization (NFV), similarly fundamental change appears set to hit networks.

Why SDN and why now?

Enterprise Management Associates analyst Shamus McGillicuddy recently did extensive research on SDN early adopters. He found “improved end-user productivity,” “revenue growth,” and “increased security” were the top three desired benefits.

Clearly, these are significant expectations. However, while the business advantages of SDN can be mammoth, the path to SDN networks won’t necessarily be straightforward or painless for many organizations.

In his report, McGillicuddy said SDN “is one of the most significant disruptions ever experienced by the networking industry.” While many have focused on adopting SDN technology, he reports “too little attention has been paid to how infrastructure teams will plan, design, and operate software-defined networks.”

Given the ongoing change and advancements in the cloud, mobility and big data, there’s already been plenty of complexity and change. Many IT organizations are currently struggling to contend with the complexities of today’s networks. With so many interrelated systems and services, simply having a current, complete network topology can be difficult, and efforts like root cause analysis remain too time consuming and error prone.

Trouble brewing

However, these challenges will grow much more troublesome in SDN environments.

While definitions of SDN aren’t clearly drawn, one of the core tenets of these approaches is the implementation of a central control plane. This additional management layer ushers in a new arena that needs to be accounted for in network management. And it can introduce unprecedented dynamism into the infrastructure elements that are governed by this management layer.

Not surprisingly, McGillicuddy found that when it came to defining the capabilities required, “The highest priority, chosen by 47% of SDN adopters, was a functional capability that could understand and adjust to on-demand network capacity changes.”

CA Spectrum customers: ready for SDN

For those IT teams already struggling with managing network performance and availability, SDN will represent a very troubling prospect, and rightly so.

On the other hand, CA Spectrum customers find themselves on a very solid footing today. They have the advanced capabilities required currently, including event correlation among multiple tools, service-aware management and intelligent fault detection. Further, CA Spectrum is uniquely equipped to scale up to support the demands to manage SDN networks.

When SDN is employed, new technologies are introduced that many existing network management tools don’t support. CA Virtual Network Assurance (CA VNA) equips organizations with the capabilities they need to track all the network components in the SDN and NFV ecosystem. Because it offers integration support with CA VNA, CA Spectrum can help make the transition to dynamic SDN environments a smooth one.

CA Spectrum 10.1.1 supports the CA VNA integration.  See the CA Community ‘CA Spectrum Upgrade Content‘ for a central location for all material needed to upgrade CA Spectrum.

To learn more about CA Spectrum and CA Virtual Network Assurance visit ca.com/Spectrum and ca.com/VNA.

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