SDN and Network Automation: Splitting Hairs?
At the recent Network Field Day 11, there were several discussions at the Cisco offices after the Cisco folks left the room. One of these discussions, led by Terry Slattery, was centered around SDN, and I think it’s worth a listen/watch (only about 20 minutes):
In this video, I made the argument that SDN should be limited to a very specific definition, which eliminates the management plane from the conversation entirely (around 5:40).
I am in full agreement that the term SDN, or “software-defined __ “ is at this point totally meaningless. It means so many things to so many different people, and predictably, this conversation ended with just as much confusion about SDN as when we started. So, to try to “define” SDN seems pointless, and smells of hair-splitting, but I do this for a very specific reason.
Splitting Hairs
To me, SDN and network automation are two totally different things, yet they almost always get lumped together in conversations. Normally I wouldn’t try to remedy this, but since one of these things is a practical thing to do for many organizations, I want to offer up a different way of thinking about this.
First off, you Continue reading