HP Advances SDN With Integrated Infra, Controller, Application Solutions

HP has announced open-standards-based software-defined network (SDN) technologies to span infrastructure, control software and application layers with a “single control plane” that enables enterprises and cloud providers to simplify and maximise agility across datacentre, campus and branch networks.

As companies move to cloud and other computing environments, manual configuration of networks through command-line interface (CLI) coding has proven to be error prone, as well as time and resource intensive. SDN overlay-point products offer a centralised control plane, but fall short by not enabling automated configuration of network infrastructure or providing SDN applications to roll out new services for campus and branch networks. This incomplete approach creates complexity and unnecessary manual coding requirements.

The new HP technologies announced today cover all layers by including an SDN controller, SDN applications, SDN services and solutions that further strengthen HP’s Virtual Application Networks strategy. As a result, clients can achieve the full potential of SDN technologies through the abstraction, programming and automation of their network to improve scalability and agility, while simplifying the deployment of applications and services.

“In the cloud era, clients need a single point of control for the entire network, which enables them to deploy any application or service directly to the user within minutes,” said Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India. “Only HP provides clients with a complete software-defined network solution that automates manual configuration tasks across hardware, software and applications and from datacentre to desktop through a single control plane.”

HP is the first to offer SDN technologies for all three critical layers—infrastructure, control software and application—to simplify networks and improve agility across the enterprise. These layers create a complete, open SDN hardware and software solution that provides a single point of control for the entire network.

The infrastructure layer delivers open programmable access through OpenFlow, a networking protocol that automates hardware configurations. The SDN functionality in the infrastructure layer enables clients to simplify network configuration. HP has also announced nine additional switch models providing OpenFlow-enabled support for HP FlexNetwork architecture, offering clients a flexible and programmable standards-based interface.