Here’s our gathering of the week’s news bits around software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and related topics.

… If SDN is the wave of the future, then much of the industry is still watching from the beach, if a Network World poll is any indication. The survey of 298 network professionals found that only 9 percent of respondents have SDNs in production with 6 percent piloting. Almost half, 43 percent, said SDNs were not even on their radar screens. The study was announced at Network World’s Open Network Exchange (ONX) this week.

… Rackspace, faced with a sudden price war between Google and Amazon Web Services, is looking for alliances or possibly an acquisition. The company announced Thursday it had hired Morgan Stanley to scout for expansion opportunities.

… Juniper announced the formation of an advisory board for OpenContrail, comprised of 10 of the project's contributors and stakeholders. A few notable names include AT&T, Canonical, and Cloudscaling — and in that last case, it's CEO and all-around cloud superhero Randy Bias who's on the board. OpenContrail is the open-source project formed around the Juniper Contrail SDN controller.

… The Open Networking Users Group (ONUG) released a list of the top use cases most likely to be included in RFIs/RFQs this year and beyond. ONUG polled attendees at its spring conference last week and found the top three priorities out of nine proposed use cases: 1) software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN), 2) virtual networks/overlays, and 3) network services virtualization. Check out the ONUG site to see how the remaining use cases ranked.

... Cyan announced it will upgrade Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation's (MBC) underserved metro network in southern Virginia. The provider will use Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN software and Z-Series packet-optical platforms for the regional upgrade of broadband, wholesale, and cloud connectivity services.

… Procera Networks is joining Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand Ecosystem Program to promote NFV deployments. The initial use case will utilize NFV for operators to provide targeted and personalized parental control.

… Hybrid cloud security provider OpenDNS raised $35 million in Series C funding. Existing investors Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures led the round. Glynn Capital, Cisco, Evolution Equity, Lumia Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Northgate Capital joined the party, bringing the company’s total funding to $53 million.

… SolarWinds released the latest version of its enterprise-scalable Virtualization Manager, promising more reach and visibility into virtualized infrastructures. The version aims to provide deeper integration with other SolarWinds products that share the same monitoring and management backbone.

… John Macario has joined Edgewater Networks as VP of marketing. The former Cablevision exec will lead marketing efforts for the company’s expansion into SDN- and NFV-based products.