Software Defined Networking, Intel and the Cloud
This week Intel announced their new Xeon chipset, alongside with companion accelerator chips that can process up to 255 million packets per second. These data networking-focused x86 CPUs and companion chips prove that Intel is not going to repeat their recent blunder in the mobile sector. Intel sees the software-defined networking trend hitting a 60% year-over-year growth trajectory, as a path to market dominance in the cloud-networking space.
Software-Defined Networking is essentially the virtualization of the local networking within a data center. This means cost-effective switches and “dumb” routing fabric can be managed via a software-defined network controller that connects to the application layer via APIs. Of course, all this can be done in software which means any changes in the networking can be done via software, without requiring any wiring changes in the data center.
Besides some of the current technical challenges of Software-Defined Networking, it will get off the ground. This is primarily because of the pull by large organizations such as Google, Facebook, and other data center operators, that are the largest purchasers of networking gear for their data centers. They would like to move away from costly customized silicon-based networking gear and at the same time gain the ability to automate the data center networking operations. Software-Defined Networking will provide exactly both. Today, thanks to other virtualization technologies, everything but the local networks can be automated and dynamically rearranged within the data centers already – Software-Defined Networking is the last remaining step.
Of course, WAN virtualization is already happening at the branch office edge of enterprise networks. Technologies such as Broadband Bonding are virtualizing WAN resources and essentially presenting a single IP interface to a branch office LAN. The natural next step is a similar trend to take over the data centers with Software-Defined Networking.
Cahit Akin, CEO, Mushroom Networks, Inc.
Mushroom Networks is the provider of SD-WAN (Software Defined WAN) and NFV solutions capable of Broadband Bonding that enables self-healing WAN networks that route around network problems such as latency, jitter and packet loss.