Network Allies Blog SDN Rises As Technology Companies Join Forces

Reprinted from Investors.comSoftware-defined networking could become the next big tech trend - or not.Opinions are mixed, but many tech companies are betting on the former. In April, 18 tech companies - including Cisco Systems (CSCO), Brocade Communication Systems (BRCD) and IBM (IBM) - joined forces to invest dollars and engineers to further develop SDN.Many expect SDN to become a staple of computer networks, saving enterprises millions of dollars in hardware costs.The 18 companies are backing the OpenDaylight Project, an open-source collaborative project at the Linux Foundation. The nonprofit is focused on developing open-source technology. The foundation plans to release the first piece of software code from the project in the third quarter.SDN technology can speed configuration of network connectivity, responding fast to changes in user needs, bandwidth, security and much more. It does this in large part by splitting network traffic into a "data plane" and a "control plane." It gets pretty technical, but the idea is to make networks and data centers more flexible, saving time and money for users.IBD recently corresponded via email with Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's executive director, about the SDN plans:IBD: What is the Linux Foundation and why deal with SDN?Zemlin: The foundation was founded in 2000 to protect, promote and advance Linux (open-source operating software). In recent years, its mission has expanded to foster the growth of collaborative development. Building software collaboratively has become the norm, especially at the infrastructure level. Companies, organizations and individuals are coming to us to help advise and host projects that need a neutral home for this kind of work.Based on our experiences hosting the largest collaborative development project, Linux, we can provide a blueprint and open-source best practices to projects like OpenDaylight, so that companies can focus on their work.IBD: How did the OpenDaylight project come together?Zemlin: The founding companies started to discuss the potential of an open-source, collaborative project to advance software-defined networking. Many were Linux Foundation members. They approached us to help them organize it.IBD: Why target SDN?Zemlin: The companies involved in OpenDaylight are networking market leaders. They are looking to innovate quickly to address the requirements of their customers in the years ahead. Software-defined networking allows customers to use sophisticated intelligence to program their networks from anywhere, anytime. This requires a common industry platform and a community-supported platform on top of which that innovation can happen, which is why collaborative development makes so much sense in this case.