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Putting the Application in SDN

Putting the Application in SDN

by Steve Harriman, VP of Marketing  - March 25, 2014

We would like to highlight a couple of recent articles about SDN that reflect Packet Design’s perspective on the technology. Arthur Cole wrote in Enterprise Networking Planet about “SDN in the Enterprise: It’s the Applications, Stupid.” He rightly asserts that the value of SDN isn’t in the architecture itself, but in the applications that the environment supports. It is understandable that during the genesis of a technology, the majority of effort is spent in making it work, but we should not lose site of the fact that optimal application performance is the key to deploying SDN more broadly. And we as an industry are not nearly ready to effectively manage applications across software-defined networks.

IsaacMao via Compfight cc 

In fact, Cole cites an article written by our own CTO Cengiz Alaettinoglu in Data Center Knowledge about how traditional, manual management methods are inadequate in a programmable, automated network environment. We need to automate network management best practices and processes to give human operators the visibility and control needed to adequately manage SDN applications in the data center and across the WAN. Continue reading

City of Lights Hosts First Global MPLS/SDN Event

City of Lights Hosts the First Global MPLS/SDN Event

by Brian Boyko, Technology Commentator  - March 18, 2014

Packet Design will be attending the 2014 MPLS SDN World Congress this week in Paris. This is the 16th edition of the event, but this year it becomes the MPLS SDN World Congress (formerly known as the MPLS & Ethernet World Congress). According to the event producer Upperside Conferences, this is the first worldwide event in MPLS and SDN. Attendees will come from more than 65 countries, and more than 50 percent of this audience works for service providers. 

Considering that we have customers on five continents, the majority of those customers are service providers, and that we are working on an SDN management prototype, this is an exciting event for us. Our CTO Cengiz Alaettinoglu, who is attending the event for the seventh time, is particularly excited to share our SDN vision and meet with service providers, customers and peers. He will be speaking about “Real-Time Analytics and Policy Management for Software Defined Networking.” Here’s a quick summary of his presentation: 

North-bound SDN APIs allow creation of network-aware applications. Cloud and data center applications have successfully taken Continue reading

The Management Challenges of SDN

The Management Challenges of SDN

by Brian Boyko, Technology Commentator  - March 11, 2014

Really, when we talk about SDN in the WAN, all we’re talking about is separating the control plane (which tells data where to go) from the data plane (which forwards traffic to the next node). We’ll still have physical routers and other infrastructure, but they’ll become “commodity forwarding devices” with the control plan intelligence residing in a server – the SDN controller. This enables us to create virtual network overlays and functions. 

Where this can be a challenge is not so much in figuring out how to integrate it into your network but the lack of widely accepted standards for SDN. Certainly, the Open Networking Foundation is developing one, but it’s yet to see full adoption. And without standards for SDN, it will be difficult to build systems. Now the ONF and other consortia and standards bodies such as the IETF are making progress on this issue – and Packet Design will be part of the process by which progress is made – but until standards are fully established, SDN may be limited only to those companies willing to spend the massive amount of time Continue reading

SDN Management Challenges of Wireless Carriers

SDN Management Challenges of Wireless Carriers

by Steve Harriman, VP of Marketing - March 10, 2014

Our CTO Cengiz Alaettinoglu recently published an article in RCR Wireless’ Reality Check column titled “Stumbling Block: SDN Management Challenges.” He discusses three SDN applications that are particularly valuable for wireless carriers: bandwidth calendaring, demand placement, and rapid provisioning. In fact, Cengiz says that rapid provisioning “…is indeed surfacing as the killer SDN application for carriers beyond the data center.”

However, these applications cannot be used successfully in SDN environments until the industry solves numerous management challenges. Traditional, manual management methods and processes cannot keep up in a programmable, automated network environment. As a result, the human operator loses visibility and control, making it difficult to understand how to plan for the rollout of new applications and services. Lack of oversight creates a sort of wild west environment without anyone or anything governing whether or not these programmatic changes should be made.

Cengiz is currently working on a prototype of a Network Access Broker that will verify if the WAN can handle the traffic demands of SDN applications without impacting other applications adversely. You can read more about what he says Continue reading

Network Management Challenges of 2014

Network Management Challenges of 2014

by Brian Boyko, Technology Commentator - March 4, 2014

No matter how much virtualization or abstraction or automation we place into the network, it still has to run on a physical infrastructure somewhere. And you still need to understand how the underlying network is performing, which route the traffic is taking, how much bandwidth each application needs and during what time periods, etc. 

So no matter how much the venerable router is under assault and in danger of becoming a commodity, we know that you will never be able to abstract all physical devices – or humans for that matter – from the network. But we will all need to adapt. 

This is the perspective we’re taking in this blog. Welcome to the first post of the Packet Design blog, where we will delve into all things network management, route analytics, SDN, IT and beyond. We’ll be covering issues for everyone affected by network management concerns. 

That’s a broader audience than you’d think at first glance. It of course includes the planners, architects and engineers who design, set up and maintain the network, the NOC staff who oversee it, the managers responsible Continue reading

Packet Design Appoints Daniel Ley as SVP, Sales

Expands Management Team with New Executive Role Focused on Customer Success

AUSTIN, Texas — Jan. 7, 2014 — Packet Design, a provider of IP network route analytics software, has hired technology veteran Daniel Ley to lead global sales. Ley joins Packet Design from CA Technologies, where he led the North American Solution Sales team for the capacity management and Nimsoft Monitor products. 

Previously, Ley served as vice president of worldwide sales at Hyperformix, and as director of sales for NetQoS, where he led teams in the North America, Asia Pacific and emerging markets. CA Technologies acquired both companies. Prior to NetQoS, he held various sales and sales management roles at Ward Davis, a networking products and services company. Ley began his career in avionics engineering and engineering management with Hughes Aircraft Company. 

“Daniel Ley is a proven leader who excels in building high-performance sales teams,” said Scott Sherwood, CEO of Packet Design. “His strong technical background helps him understand the customer domain extremely well, and his focus on sales operations best practices leads to predictable revenue and growth.” 

“Packet Design is planning for impressive new customer acquisition and revenue growth, and I look forward to leading this Continue reading

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