Software-defined networking (SDN) changes how the network’s control (brains) and forwarding (muscle) planes interact to improve automation and orchestration, creating one of the most disruptive technologies to hit networking in decades.
In today’s cloud environments, administrators can spin up new compute and storage in minutes, only to be stymied for weeks by cumbersome network operations. SDN‘s innovative approach to designing, building, and managing networks provide a flexible way to control the network so it can function more like the virtualized versions of compute and storage.
Whether for enterprise or providers, SDN offers the potential for faster and more agile provisioning; lower OpEx and/or CapEx; and more comprehensive network visibility and maintenance. SDN technology and the SDN market still are in their early, evolving stages. Here, we provide a primer on SDN resources, including the fundamentals of software-defined networking, and how to integrate it with networks today.