In an increasingly digital world where everything seems to be becoming ever more complex, there is a strong drive towards simplicity in innovation and development. Networking, in particular, is an area that can be included in this. Traditionally requiring time and resources to commission and configure, networking has typically been described as a complex function within corporate IT infrastructure. However, with the emergence of architectures such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), we are seeing strides made in simplifying networking as a whole.
SDN is essentially the uncoupling of infrastructure from the controlling network which enables the network and its functions to become directly programmable separate from the infrastructure.
Why SDN?
SDN offers a number of features and benefits, in particular the simplification of networking through self-provisioning, which ensures new equipment and nodes can be added with minimal configuration and setup. This in turn ensures provisioning can happen fast, thereby increasing agility for the organisation. They can now add new networks, activate new services or define rules for new users or new rules for existing users quickly and simply, without requiring cumbersome infrastructure overhauls, upgrades and replacements.
Traditionally, vendor equipment has been proprietary and businesses were locked in to a particular brand, product or service as soon as they made their first purchase. A particular device would only be compatible with other equipment from the same vendor or their partners, effectively shutting the user off from accessing value adds in other products or services which they may not have been receiving from the system that they chose.
SDN is changing this: when implemented through open standards, SDN allows for an open network, and vendor neutral systems rather than a reliance on proprietary, rigid and inflexible systems. Users of SDN systems can access multiple benefits from various interoperable programs and platforms, moving, changing and adapting as their requirements do.
In addition, SDN can provide enhanced security features, further bolstering an organisation’s armour against threats.
A flexible, agile world
The true value of SDN lies in its ability to support new and emerging technologies, unified wired and wireless access and the Internet of Things, enabling real, tangible digital transformation.
We are in the era of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Smart Everything, where virtually anything electronic can be online and is not always within the control of the organisation within which it is being used. Multiple devices from different vendors within a business means that networks need to be flexible enough to allow for their use – across the board. Businesses need to ensure that they have the flexibility and scalability to adapt to these devices so that all users are able to achieve the same functionality from the network regardless of what device they use to access it.
IoT enabled devices which generate reams of data in myriad different ways need to be catered for. Smart building sensors may collect and transmit data in a completely different way to, say, security camera data. Networks need to allow for this, and organisations need to be prepared to handle this data from a single point of control and in a simple and easily driven way. SDN allows this to happen.
Make it work for you
To succeed today, businesses need to be agile. They need to answer the mercurial needs of their customers at a moment’s notice while managing the influx of the data which helps them to determine what those needs are. In order to effect this level of agility and control, they should investigate SDN.
Going the SDN route doesn’t necessarily mean throwing out all existing – and expensive – infrastructure though. Businesses can adopt a phased approach and slowly begin to introduce SDN wherever they see the best, and most tangible, benefits.
Analysing a business’s needs, their current infrastructure, the requirements of – and plans for – their workforce and the same for their customers can ensure that they adopt a digital transformation strategy that works for them, and employ SDN in support of that strategy.
Digital transformation is happening everywhere and businesses need to adapt to this trend or run the risk of falling behind. Adopting SDN, even slowly, will help to simplify the digital transformation process.
By Peter Stutz, Portfolio Manager: IT Infrastructure at Jasco Enterprise
