By the beginning of this year, I offered him some predictions about where networking could venture in 2012. Can -being a little late, but as if on cue, software-defined networking (SDN) has emerged front and center networking this year with the acquisition of VMware Nicira.
In this blog, I am here to suggest that more than a billion dollars later, the capacity of the wedding to make the network vision software defined rest, shall we say, incomplete. But you have to start somewhere
defined-ness Software :. To understand this better, let's temporarily separate words defined networking software. The term "software-defined" is beautiful. It can be applied to all kinds of things, and it makes think, in general, useful features. For example, say defined by security software or software-defined identity ... Or a software-defined automobile or toaster software defined
What is the concept of defined-ness software, really Sometimes it is abused - like - a little programming question. and the promoter of the widget-defined software wonderful cite (wonderland) use cases, which are "a little programming question" away. "Everything is possible!" They shouted.
However, the benefits of real-world software defined-ness comes from automation and replicability. What I mean by that? Consider again the set-toaster software. Now I am a capricious toast. My bread should be just the right level and the right kind of brown. I thought it must be cooked first at 375F for one minute and then cooled quickly, but not too fast. I bought a toaster. But my investments has really been in the recipe how I use it.
When I'm in a hotel away from home, would not it be great if the morning the toaster at breakfast buffet can cook toast exactly to my taste. For my recipe. With a regular old toaster, I have to hit and try and try to get the toast I want. Or just cereal instead. But if they had software-defined toaster, I would just shake my recipe above, that would pop the perfect toast. Automation and replicability .
But, back in the world of networks. Your routers, switches and other network equipment - which is your toaster. You did a investments to do this job right network for your workload. The "hotel" is a different data center. The same cloud. Before NRS, the network was in the way to deploy your application on a different infrastructure. It was either unfeasible or simply a careful, time-ly manual process to get the network in the new location to match the application requirements.
With the commissioning software-defined network, however, the requirements of the Travel Application with application. As software These requirements -. The recipe - can then be expressed in the networking infrastructure in the new place, which can then provide a network that perfectly matches the needs of the application. automatically. And replicably .
The considerable investment that goes into the creation of this recipe is now protected. You are not obliged to make this investment every time you change locations. So you can move locations more often - your needs better. Agility. You can even choose to keep copies of your application in many places. availability and disaster recovery high. And keep many different applications in the same location. Multi-tenancy .
Needless to say, software-defined-ness is a simple but very powerful concept. One worth pursuing.
network ≠ Connectivity
software-defined networking is perhaps the biggest change to emerge in network heart lately. Connectivity - allowing machines to talk to each other - is the foundation of networking. But the network environment in which lives a typical application is more complex than simple connectivity.
Connectivity is the management who can talk to whom, and just as importantly, who should not be allowed to talk to anyone. Layer 2 and layer 3 network - switching and routing - this question. It is to provide the "model of Ethernet service," some say. Virtually every major switch-n-router network providers today, offers connectivity capabilities defined by software. With Nicira, we can now add to VMware this list.
the discussion around RSD is largely focused on how technology will impact on connectivity. It is a bottom up, "I have to get this package from a to B" L2-L3 perspective. the problem is that the networking needs of an application beyond connectivity.
in addition to connectivity, what applications require software is the ability to define their application level network requirements. Define how the network deals with users and applications and transactions. optimization and load balancing application sessions. Secure and encrypt transactions and attributes. Looking malfeasance in the payloads of the application. Application things level networking. The kind of things that load balancers, application delivery controllers, firewalls, IDS and IPSes do. Applications are investing significantly in the development, configuration and adjustment of policies unfolding on their application-level network equipment. And it is this investment that RSD must preserve and provide leverage for.
End of NRS Vision
To create a PR strategy that is both pragmatic and useful, requires three additional ingredients beyond connectivity
- application development :. significant vision RPS requires a top-down (L7 down) consider the application networking policies, and network service environment applications must be passed around the application before be eligible for automation and replicability - the promises of NRS. Limit discussion NRS just switching and routing where Nicira and others play, sub-book on the NRS promise
- A pragmatic way forward :. In reaching NRS - the destination - it is equally important to identify a viable path would lead out. The roads that require physical network equipment to be substantially forklifted to get to NRS, lack practice. A pragmatic way to RPS requires an approach where new technologies can take advantage of existing networks can coexist and interact with existing infrastructure and can be adopted progressively
- Orchestration :. To fully realize the potential of RPS, you need a world class orchestrator. Something that can orchestrate the movement of networking machinery in precise coordination with the rest of the application device.
We believe that the true path to SDN will start the application-first, from top to bottom, without forklift, in a sensible way for applications that works in conjunction with L2-L3 existing business networks. The benefits of SDN are multiplied when combined with a complete solution for cloud-grade orchestration.
The day is not far when I would be able to have that perfectly browned toast in a hotel when I'm on the road. Just not yet.
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