For the 3rd installment on my three part SDN series, building on A Business Case for SDN, and the SDN Ecosystem, the most practical way to start exploring an SDN deployment is with a proof of concept (POC). But even if you have the approval to go ahead with an SDN POC, it can be difficult to know where to start. Let’s cut through the uncertainty and lay out what it takes to do a successful SDN POC.
Identify a pain point
Start by identifying a key pain point in networking that you’d like to address with SDN. For example, you might want to improve campus security, or improve the performance of collaborative tools, or streamline your data center. Specific tasks in these areas include adding a network tap, increasing the speed of a LAN link, or reassigning VLANs.
We’ll assume you have surveyed business unit leaders, ranked overall IT strategies and come back with one SDN application to start your evolution. Similar to a cloud or BYOD initiative, giving visibility for SDN can help you bring the company together, and can also build support for improving how IT can drive the business. If you understand the Continue reading
As a follow on to my blog about building a business case for an SDN deployment, there are now dozens of companies offering SDN-related products – so many that you might find it difficult to separate the hype from the meat. Let’s look at some categories of SDN products and how each of them fits into an overall SDN solution.
The key components of an SDN solution are ASICs, switches, a controller, and the applications or services that run over the network.
ASICs
ASICs have a long history in networking by driving scale and performance. In a clock cycle, very complex tasks can be accomplished. Without the ASIC, the central CPU would be overwhelmed performing those same tasks (remember those so called “one arm routers”). The need for ASICs created a new set of suppliers such as Broadcom, Marvell and Mellanox, and most recently Intel through its acquisition of Fulcrum. We can expect more and more specialization in ASICs as the industry pivots on the SDN theme. Over the last decade, the merchant silicon vendors have diversified and specialized products for vertical markets. For example, an ASIC optimized for the data center might have VxLAN support, while another tuned Continue reading