Ovum Hails SDN As The Catalyst To Flexible, Scalable, Intelligent Networks

Traditional network architectures are struggling to keep pace as applications and services become more dynamic. This is according to Ovum, the global analyst firm, which believes that software-defined networking (SDN) is the answer to enabling future networks to become significantly more flexible, scalable, and intelligent.

Ovum examines the vendor and product landscape of the SDN market, profiling 37 companies and highlights the period of extreme innovation and transformation facing networks today. Ovum reveals that the three-tier hierarchy (access, aggregation, and core) of network architecture is going away in favour of flatter architectures, virtualised application software is replacing network appliances, and network infrastructure is becoming much more programmable.

“SDN has already had a major impact on the communications industry by providing a focal point for a revitalised interest in networking,” said David Krozier, Principal Analyst in Ovum’s Network Infrastructure Telecoms team. “SDN provides an opportunity to completely reexamine network architectures, introduce virtualisation, and provide truly innovative solutions.”

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With SDN the focus of networking has moved from the feeds and speeds of the data plane to the intelligence inherent in the control plane and related network services. Instead of crafting applications to operate within the constraints of the network, with SDN the network will dynamically adapt to provide the connectivity services that best serve the application.

“It’s too early in the evolution of SDN to draw conclusions about which approach will win or the exact architecture of future networks as there is too much innovation yet to happen, and vendors and their customers have yet to reach a common agenda,” said Krozier. “But the search by vendors and network operators to find a better approach will eventually produce networks that are much more flexible in providing new services (monetising the network) and more efficient in their use of resources (cost-effective).”