Startup Arkin Net raises $7M to produce an SDN analytics tool that operates on natural language (no CLI) and across the physical and virtual infrastructure of multiple vendors.

The virtual version of Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Router emphasizes the 'service' piece. Instead of one virtual router, the company is offering a suite of router applications targeting NFV.

Aiming to make the WAN part of one big happy network, Nuage is offering Virtualized Network Services to extend its overlay networks out to remote enterprise locations.

Pica8 announces CrossFlow, a way to bring software-defined networking (SDN) to existing networks without disrupting what customers have already built.

In a bar near Boston, Plexxi's CEO once nagged EMC's Rich Napolitano about coming on board. It eventually worked: The company is revealing Napolitano has been its CEO for

This week in the SDxCentral Weekly Roundup: ODL welcomes new members, PLUMgrid makes announcements during OpenStack Summit, Brocade and Pica8 bring in new talent.

Following the examples of Brocade and Cisco, Juniper has created virtual routers out of its MX line. The company is also applying Contrail to a prefab NFV cloud-in-a-rack.

Pertino announces it joined forces with Dell to offer its Cloud Network Engine as part of the Dell Cloud Marketplace. It will be made available next year for customers

As SDN patents proliferate, Cisco watches election results for signs of movement on patent reform.

Brocade extends its Effortless Network strategy to the campus, adding a distributed stackable switch that can act as a distributed chassis for a scale-out deployment.

HP and Wind River team up to offer carrier grade, open source solutions for CSPs looking to meet demands as they transition to network functions virtualization (NFV) environments.

In a long-anticipated move, On.Lab is launching the ONOS operating system as open source code, potentially giving carriers an SDN alternative to OpenDaylight.

Startup Siaras is submitting some WAN ideas to OpenStack, saying it's got a way to create deterministic, on-the-fly WAN connections for the hybrid cloud.

For Midokura, it's an attempt to expand a known SDN product. For newcomer Akanda, out of DreamHost, it's "Ceph: The Sequel." Both believe open source code is the key

In this week's roundup: Cloud provider Joyent scored a $15 million funding round, Big Switch Networks said it will offer two "starter kits, F5 CEO John McAdam announced retirement

Vendor lock-in is on some network architects' minds as SDN starts becoming more commercial. If white box switching can build momentum, it could find fans quickly.

Early SDN was based on some misconceptions, according to SDN pioneer Scott Shenker. Here are his ideas for reinventing SDN for the carrier network.

Meru puts up an app store and a network dashboard, part of the company's push to bring SDN and unified management to WiFi networks.

Now you can have a slice of the Internet2 backbone. A new feature allows for network virtualization at the hardware layer, letting users run private programmable networks.

An open model for multivendor BGP configuration and policy is a first step in Google's quest to create an open model for the entire network.

In this week's update: New features, and a new exec, for Microsoft Azure; add-ons for Arista; and new friends for the Open Compute Project.

With optical vendors itching to get into SDN, Ciena and Ericsson think OpenDaylight could use a common data model for multilayer controllers.

The growing rancor between Cisco and EMC is hard to deny, but when they say EMC can free up VCE by taking majority ownership, they might have a point.

It seemed only a matter of time before EMC absorbed more of the VCE joint venture. A deal reportedly coming this week could make it happen.