How does Openflow, SDN help Virtualization/Cloud (Part 3 of 3) – Why Nicira had to do a deal?
The challenges faced by Openflow and SDN
This is the 3rd and final article in this series. As promised, lets look at some of the challenges facing this space and how we are addressing those challenges.
Challenge 1 – Which is why Nicira had to get a big partner
I have seen a lot of article about Nicira being acquired. The question no one has asked is – if the space is so hot, why did Nicira sell so early? The deal size (1.26B) was hardly chump change but if I were them and my stock was rising exponentially, then I would have held off in lure of changing the world. So what was the rush? I believe the answer lies in some of the issues I discussed in article 2 of this series a few months back–the difference between server (Controller-based) and switch (Fabric-based) approaches. The Nicira solution was very dependent on the server and the server hypervisor. The world of server operating systems and hypervisor is so fragmented that staying independent would have been a very uphill battle. Tying up with one of the biggest hypervisors made sense to ensure that their technology keeps moving forward. And Continue reading