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Response: Omar Sultan – Final Thoughts on the Open Networking Summit

7th May 2012 by 1 Comment

Omar Sultan (Cisco, SAVBU and seemingly, a SDN person) posted a wrap up after he attended the Open Networking Summit for 2012. Here is the article Cisco Blog » Blog Archive » Final Thoughts on the Open Networking Summit

Long-term, I think SDN or the concepts it represents will certainly have a hand in shaping how we do networking a decade for now–how we get there and what that destination really looks like is a bit less certain.

True. In the same way that MPLS took a decade to get serious adoption, it will take a decade for SDN/OpenFlow to be all pervasive. I also remember getting briefings from Cisco as early as 1998 through 2001 before it took off. It was hard to see all of the applications that we use MPLS for today, but it seemed sure that it would go somewhere. For me, SDN/OpenFlow has the same sense of purpose.

Second, the use cases are not always compelling. Most of the folks you saw at ONS this year were either service providers or acted as service providers (i.e. university IT). This is only natural, since, for these two groups, SDN is helping them do things they a) cannot currently do or b) do markedly better. On the enterprise front, I still don’t see the killer app.

I agree here, but only up to a point. I can see several killer applications in the Enterprise for SDN/OpenFlow that haven’t arrived yet. I’m sure someone is working on these ideas but they won’t arrive for some time yet. Cloud networks have specific problems that SDN can solve since cloud companies can easily take the risk of unproven technology (everything they do is unproven) and also able to spend months in testing and development. Few cloud networks have any legacy equipment of crapplications like Oracle or SAP to handle. That’s why the energy is around those solutions.

The EtherealMind View

In summary, I broadly agree with Omar’s view of SDN although I disagree in some major areas. I think there will be point solutions in the enterprise within a year or two and this will lead to early adoption in two to three years. My view is that SDN offers hope for control and operational management of our networks – something that isn’t possible with todays protocols and software.

Disclosure

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About Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus

  • OmarSultan

    Hey there, Greg:

    I do actually agree with your point around the enterprise.  In my mind, the difference is that service providers/cloud providers and universities are jumping up and down saying “I need this now!” and pointing to specific use cases, while the Enterprise stuff seems more “right around the corner”.  Certainly, in terms of customer interest, it seems more luke warm.  That being said, I think SDN and the like could offer some interesting tools for the enterprise for cloud, security and on the campus edge with wired/wireless integration.

    I think the key for enterprises is the ability to offer them something new they cannot currently accomplish with their current gear.  Simply offering a different way of doing something with any differentiation is, I think, less interesting to most enterprises, although I am sure others might disagree.

    The other angle to consider is if things like OpenStack will take off in the enterprise for orchestration as an alternative to some of the other things out there.

    Regards,

    Omar (@omarsultan:twitter )

    PS I don’t work for the BU, I am over in the solutions marketing side of things.