Will Software Defined Networking Revolutionise the Datacenter?

Will Software Defined Networking Revolutionise the Datacenter?

2012 was a significant year for Software and IT with cloud services going mainstream and changes to the fundamental way which we view and use computer devices. While this has been largely welcomed it has presented some challenges and now engineers are looking at new ways to deliver the best networking performance for businesses and individuals.

The datacenter has had to evolve in recent years and stay in line with these technological changes. People want better and more frequent access to their data and in turn put increasing demands and providers and network administrators. While this is a good thing engineers are having to re-think their approach and is where software defined networking might come in.

Was the Cloud just the Beginning?

Cloud computing has brought significant changes to IT systems in recent years. For businesses, the biggest change was in no longer needing to maintain their own IT infrastructure; rather, they could make use of the necessary facilities dynamically, via a network. ‘Virtualisation has paved the way for much needed flexibility in IT services,’ said an expert from Everyware AG. As far as future needs can be predicted, it seems that flexibility and efficiency may no longer be enough, greater levels of automation may be required too.

Is Software Defined Networking a Solution?

Software Defined Networking is one of the hottest IT topics this new year. ‘At the SDN network, control of software and hardware becomes independent,’ says Everyware. The decisions controlling the transport of data packets are made on the SDN control plane, and the underlying data plane is decoupled. Therefore, companies will have much greater flexibility in storage, as no physical network transformations are required. Processes like providing the required bandwidth, monitoring services and security responses will be faster. The new concept will change cloud computing as the administrator will be able to flexibly manage the data by means of traffic-shaping.

Some companies such as Eyeryware a Data Center Outsourcing Management firm,  have already begun implementing and testing software defined network solutions but it is still very early days. However there is a big opportunity for vendors here and could become the next thing. It will be interesting to see how this shapes both consumer and business computing and of course we would love to hear your thoughts on software defined networking. Will it work or is it just another fad?