An overview of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and the key benefits of moving to a virtualized network, including:
- Improved time to market through automation
- Optimal trafficking with a global view of the network
- Quicker enablement of new services
- Reduced operating costs
- Improved management and visibility
- Simplified operation of network devices
From "Introduction to Software Defined Networking" webinar presented by GTRI CTO Scott Hogg on March 10, 2016. Webinar recording: https://youtu.be/gRXnctYDBjE
2. Agenda
• SDN Introduction and Overview
• Benefits and Drivers for SDN
• SDN Use Cases
• SDN Industry Organizations
• Challenges and Objections to SDN, Industry
Outlook
• GTRI’s Solution Methodology
• GTRI’s SDN Solutions and Services
3. Software’s Influence on IT Infrastructure
• “The Times They are a-Changin’”, Bob Dylan
• Movement toward virtualization, multi-tenancy,
cloud services, the third platform, and influenced
by consumption economics
• “Why Software Is Eating The World”, by Marc
Andreessen, (WSJ, Aug 20, 2011)
• DevOps isn’t just a popular digital-age
portmanteau, its a movement of IT de-siloization
that is also coming to data-networking
4. Benefits of Virtualization and Software’s
Influence
• Servers have transformed from bare-metal to
virtualized OSs, and now applications are moving to
software containers (LXC, Docker, etc.).
• Storage systems now have dynamic features like
automatic tiering, thin-provisioning, de-duplication,
backups and replication.
• Networking is beginning to be influenced by software
5. Today’s Network Limitations
• Networking hasn’t changed substantially in 15 years
• Most network devices are manually configured one-at-a-time
• QoS and other policies are configured manually on each
individual device, not tied to current application traffic mix
or security policies
• IP routing protocols do not take traffic load into consideration
• Network Admins have only managed to moved from Telnet
to SSH
# telnet 10.2.6.9 # ssh –l cisco 10.2.6.9
6.
7. What is SDN?
• Software-Defined
Networking (SDN) means
different things to
different people. Each
person thinks about SDN
from their own
perspective.
8. What is SDN?
• Software-Defined Networking is an approach to
networking that separates the control plane from the
forwarding plane to support virtualization.
• SDN is a new paradigm
for network
virtualization.
11. SDN Benefits
• Greater span of control and network analytics and response.
• Better intelligence with a global view of the network rather than each
network element looking at the network from its own viewpoint.
• Improved application experience and empower the network
owner/operator.
• Rapid deployment of applications using networking that supports
the application’s specific needs.
• Simplified and automated IT administration.
• Opportunity to open up the network to a diverse set of vendors
and disaggregation.
15. SDN Industry Organizations
• Open Networking Foundation (ONF) - OpenFlow, OFConfig,
Table Type Patterns (TTP)
• OpenStack
• OpenDaylight
• IETF - OVSDB, I2RS
• ETSI - Network Functions Virtualization (NfV)
16. Objections and Challenges
• SDN Controller redundancy, security
o What happens if the controller fails?
• Central controller needs to be notified of any network failure
o How does this happen when the network is down?
o Latency for TCP/SSL control signaling – detect sub-ms failures
• Speed of flow setup
o Controllers will need to support many flows/second
• Vendor interoperability between controllers
o Do different vendors controllers interoperate?
o Current vendors have “Proprietary Openness”
17. Objections and Challenges (Cont.)
• SDN Internet extensibility
o How does the SDN controller interface to the Internet?
• Human factors
o Humans configure routers/switches manually and humans will configure
the controller manually
o SDN transcends IT group silos (networking, security, servers, …)
• SDN is an unproven technology
o Industry in its infancy, many small vendors, some vendors are not
shipping orderable products, lack of standards for controller interface
o Current IT staff has 25% of their time for new projects
• ROI/TCO analysis for enterprise deployments
o SDN deployments must preserve current IT investments
19. SDN Operational Model
• Network and security administrators are sometimes threatened by
network programmability and software-defined networking.
• The truth is, your networking skills and knowledge is transferable to a
software-driven/defined world.
• Operational issues can arise in the new SDDC environment when groups
don’t cooperate well.
• Silos of IT operations don’t lend themselves to NFV and SDN and virtual
security policy enforcement.
• The traditional physical demarcations and lines of responsibility blur with
SDN and NFV.
• Cross-function and interdisciplinary DevOps teams are needed to make
SDN and NFV systems viable.
20. Elusive SDN Deployments
• Have you seen an SDN Deployment?
• Universities, campus slicing
• Hyperscale technology businesses and cloud
service providers who have dynamic networking
needs and high virtual machine density
• Organizations requiring network taps for data
analysis
• Some enterprise data-center deployments exist
20
21. SDN Industry Outlook
• More SDN deployments will emerge as solutions mature.
• We will see consolidation of vendors in this space
(major/larger vendors will absorb the best-of-breed).
• Larger vendors will include native SDN APIs to preserve
organization’s investment in networking products.
• Standards will emerge and the market will drive a
winning technology.
22. GTRI SDN Solutions
• GTRI’s Virtualization and Advanced Networking Professional Services (PS)
practice has expertise with SDN vendor solutions.
• GTRI has top-tier partner status with the most relevant long-term vendors
in the IT virtualization market.
• GTRI offers an SDN readiness assessment service to assess your
infrastructure, your applications, and the benefits to your business gained
from using SDN.
• GTRI has a SDN test bed where we can learn and teach SDN solutions and
help validate solutions prior to deployment.
• GTRI is performing SDN deployments and we will freely share the latest
vendor and industry information with you.
24. FREE SDN Technology Review
• We are offering a FREE 3-hour (~1/2 day) SDN
technology review for your company
• Bring your networking, security, DevOps, and other
technology teams together
• Review SDN capabilities within your existing
networked infrastructure
• Discuss SDN architecture and design options
• Review network automation and network
programmability potential