From a technical standpoint, Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new approach to data center networking that separates the control plane from the data (forwarding) plane to support virtualization. Using a centralized console, network administrators can “shape” network traffic without having to reconfigure individual devices, giving them more flexibility and agility to respond to current conditions.
In popular vernacular, SDN has come to collectively refer to a few different types of network technology that provide this flexibility and agility in different ways. VMware’s NSX and Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) are two technology solutions that leverage SDN and that GTRI’s professional services team often recommends to help organizations implement a successful Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).
VMware was already a leader in virtualization solutions when it bought Nicira and the company’s Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) in 2012. NVP evolved into VMware NSX, which today provides network virtualization, disaster recovery and security.
Cisco ACI was introduced at Cisco Live 2014. It leverages policy-based automation, which makes it a different approach to SDN. Instead of creating a software-only network overlay, Cisco has taken a hybrid approach to SDN. With ACI the switching fabric is created with Cisco Nexus 9000 series switch hardware, while the policy is created using the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller. These two elements provide a comprehensive SDN architecture, resulting in high performance end-to-end.
If you’d like to learn more about Cisco ACI, I’ll be leading an informational webinar on April 12: “Cisco ACI: A New Approach to Software Defined Networking.” You will learn what makes Cisco ACI simple, agile and application centric, and how it can reduce errors and accelerates application deployment from weeks to minutes.
Register for GTRI’s Cisco ACI webinar. (Note: GTRI is an Authorized Technology Provider for Cisco ACI.)
If you’re interested in VMware NSX, I recommend this previously recorded webinar led by GTRI’s CTO, Scott Hogg, and VMware’s Hunter Hanson.
Scott also led an Introduction to Software Defined Networking webinar that further explains how SDN works and its benefits.
Additional SDN webinars are planned; see the sidebar on the webinar registration page for topics and dates.
Michael Edwards is a Principal Architect in Professional Services at GTRI.
