What you need to know about software-defined networking | May20 Newsletter
The practical impact of this is that the management and control aspects of the network can be updated without having to replace and re-plug all of the network cables in data closets.
Rapid reconfiguration
Update speed isn’t limited to hardware in SDN. The essence of the software-defined network is its ability to redefine the traffic flowing across each port through commands from the controller.
Those commands don't require operator intervention; they can be programmed to create virtual networks, assign them to physical ports, then tear them down and free the ports according to the needs of virtual servers or changing network traffic patterns.
Smaller organisations need flexibility, too
The majority of SDN products are still geared toward the top end of town, but savvy administrators of smaller organisations can at least start laying the groundwork for SDN adoption into their IT architectures. Moreover, while SDN offers enterprises the flexibility they need to handle high user loads, smaller organisations have no less need for flexibility within their networks.
Firstly, they need to maximise the effectiveness of their network spending to achieve the best possible bit flow through each network segment. Open standards like OpenFlow are behind SDN products that are rapidly coming within the price-range of mid-size entities.
What this means is that they no longer need fear missing out on everything SDN can provide them due to the cost of admission.
Virtualising servers on your network, for example, can greatly increase your network’s capacity, while less hardware means reduced costs for rebuild, configuration, maintenance and management. Also, understanding your network configuration inside and out will give you a strong idea of how your network is running and what you can successfully automate using SDN.
Finally, staying up to date with the latest virtualisation and cloud technology will give you a better idea of how to maximise SDN’s potential benefits.