Businesses are finding it very hard to keep up with the latest technology. Multimedia content is increasing every day and cloud computing is already hitting the peak. Mobile usage has also increased exponentially in a few years.
Organizations also want to cut their costs without losing any revenue. These things are now challenging the traditional business model which we were using.
Most companies are now moving to SDN technology. They are using it to increase the efficiency of their network. SDN will help you in programming your network behavior. You can use software applications for controlling the behavior of your network. These applications will mostly use open APIs. If you are using SDN, then you can easily manage your entire network technology. In this article, we are going to talk about Software-defined Networking.
What is SDN?
Companies are using SDN for managing their networks. It will separate the control panel from the forward plane. SDN complements NFV or Network functions virtualization by network management.
SDN will provide you with a centralized point of view. You can control your entire network from one location. This will ensure that you will be your network’s brain. An SDN controller will use northbound APIs for sending data to the applications and it will use southbound APIs for sending data to the switches and routers.
This will ensure that centralized SDN environments can adapt according to your business needs. It will improve network flexibility and innovation. Also, it will limit the wasteful provisioning. This will help you in lowering the costs of your operations.
History of SDN:
Java was created by the Sun Microsystems in the 1990s. The concept of SDN was introduced with Java. Geoplex was a service platform which was created to manage online services and network. It was used for balancing the workloads and reconfiguring network traffic. Thus, it was like a soft switch.
Sun Microsystems engineer launched WebSprocket in 1998. The main aim of WebSprocket was to provide an object-oriented network OS. VMFoundry and VMServer were built after this application. In 2001, WebSprocket and Ericsson built a soft switch together. However, it was quickly replaced.
Open Networking Foundation was heavily promoting the use of OpenFlow which was a standard communications interface protocol.
The Concept of Software-defined networking:
The main aim of SDN is to provide a stable and adaptable SDN architecture to companies. It can handle complex networks which are mostly a mix of in-house and cloud infrastructure. SDN can achieve this by separating the network control from the forwarding functions. Network control will become programmable if you are using SDN.
You will have greater agility if you are using SDN. The network admin can easily adjust the flow of traffic according to their needs.
Advantages of SDN:
- The traffic patterns have been changing with time. Most people are using mobile devices due to which traffic patterns are changing. Most companies are moving their systems to the cloud. Ethernet switches were perfect for simple and traditional client-server designs. However, they can’t provide flexibility to your systems now.
- The main advantage of SDN is that it will provide you access to both public and private cloud services. This will ensure that your business can easily access cloud services. You can access these services whenever you want to. This will ensure that you can quickly scale up your infrastructure according to your business needs.
- IT is also slowly becoming consumer-led. Most people want to use their mobile devices for accessing networks and data. If you are using SDN, then you can allow your users to use their mobile devices.
- SDN will also help you in handling big data. Companies are generating large volumes of data and information. You need resources like virtual machines for enabling parallel processing. Companies need to invest a lot of money if they are still using conventional networking. If you are using SDN, then you can easily handle these processes. Also, it is cheaper when compared to conventional networking.
Future of Software-Defined Networking:
There are many benefits of using SDN for business networks. However, SDN is also slowly becoming famous in other sectors. There are many more benefits of using software-defined networking.
For example, if you want to control the protocol and design of mobile networks from software, then you can use SDMN or software-defined mobile networking. Service providers can use commodity software for reducing their costs.
Managed SD-WAN is also quickly becoming popular. There are many benefits of using SD-WAN like cost savings. You don’t need to worry about using costly leased lines. SD-WAN will help you in managing your networks by using the internet.
There are many security concerns associated with SDN as it is open source. It is vulnerable to many hacking attacks. Thus, hackers can disrupt your entire network. These are some legitimate worries. However, you can easily protect SDN from hacking attacks as it uses a centralized monitoring system.
You also need to worry about the centralized control system. For example, if hackers get access to your control system, then they can steal all your data. You also need to ensure that your network admin is well trained otherwise they might mess up the entire network configuration. This will impact your entire network efficiency.
The cloud is also a new technology. SDN will help you in moving to the cloud platform. However, it is a still new technology. Thus, you need to hire IT professionals that know about these latest technologies. They should have the necessary skill set to handle the cloud migration process.
The entire world is slowly moving towards the virtualized system. Thus, SDN is going to become more popular with time. It is the perfect time to join the party.
Conclusion
SDN can help you in managing your network. If you don’t have access to a good in-house IT team, then you should work with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in handling the latest technologies like cloud and SDN. They will help you in decreasing your operational costs and increasing your overall efficiency. If you need more information regarding network monitoring, then you can contact Bleuwire.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.
