Relevance of SDN in Cloud Networking
SDN (Software Defined Networking) is finally becoming clearer. It is not “Still Don’t Know” nor is it a specific overlay controller. Simply put, it is an open and programmable way to build networks for customers looking at utilizing hybrid combinations of public and private cloud access.
We are witnessing a shift from multi-tier oversubscribed legacy enterprise networks to two-tier leaf-spine or single-tier Spline™ cloud networks with east- west traffic patterns scaling across thousands of servers. Arista was the first to introduce this new architectural “leaf-spine” approach for cloud-based networks and five years later others are still attempting to mimic. Lets review some practical examples.
Facebook: Take an important and familiar social networking application, Facebook. Their public information shows that they deploy a memcache architecture, which allowed them to reduce the user access time to half a millisecond by using fewer network tiers, resulting in lower application latency. As we log into Facebook, the single login request triggers thousands of look-ups on databases and memcache servers. Legacy enterprise multi-tiered networks would result in delayed look-ups and would negatively impact the user experience and interest in a significant way.
Amazon: Shopping couldn’t be easier than online on your favorite site. Have you Continue reading