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Large enterprises will lean toward open SDN platforms
How Pica8's SDN platform for cloud providers indicates how SDN trends will take shape with large enterprises at large.
By Zeus Kerravala on Tue, 12/11/12 - 10:10am.A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post defining what "open networking" really meant and how it should be defined. On Monday morning, one of the companies I mentioned in the blog, Pica8, announced its vision and reference architecture for software defined networks (SDNs). While I believe that we’re very early in the cycle for SDNs and most enterprises will look for fully integrated, complete solutions, large, network-centric enterprises, cloud providers and service providers will lean towards open, agile platforms to create competitive differentiation.
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Pica8’s solution is designed to be a network development platform for cloud providers and includes a physical switch with an integrated hypervisor virtual switch and an SDN controller using OpenFlow 1.2 as the communications protocol between all of the components of the solution. The Pica8 PicOS operating system utilizes both the Open vSwitch 1.7.1 with OpenStack and the above mentioned OpenFlow 1.2 protocol and integrates with the Ryu controller designed by NTT, specifically for cloud providers.
While the initial use cases of the open Pica8 SDN platform involve building a flexible, agile network, the long-term vision is to allow developers at the cloud providers and large enterprises to create applications that are highly customized and work with the network. This is the key to the long-term success of the Pica8 strategy, which relies on the creation and fostering of a developer community. The company seems to understand this well as every time I have spoken with them, they've brought up the success of the Red Hat community and seem content to follow that model. Communities are generally slow to get off the ground, but once there’s a few hundred members they wind up becoming self-fueling groups that provide ideas and support to one another.
The relative new-ness of SDNs and the design of the Pica8 platform makes this an ideal match. Pica8's products are software running on generic hardware platforms. This means any change that needs to be made to the product is purely done in software, giving networking the flexibility and adaptability that the software world has had over the years.
Again, this kind of networking model isn’t for everyone, particularly not those with small operations teams. Those that have the resources to dedicate to an SDN implementation should get much greater leverage out of this model.
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Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. Kerravala provides a mix of tactical advice to help his clients in the current business climate and long term strategic advice. Kerravala provides research and advice to the following constituents: End user IT and network managers, vendors of IT hardware, software and services and the financial community looking to invest in the companies that he covers.
Kerravala does research through a mix of end user and channel interviews, surveys of IT buyers, investor interviews as well as briefings from the IT vendor community. This gives Kerravala a 360 degree view of the technologies he covers from buyers of technology, investors, resellers and manufacturers.
Kerravala uses the traditional on line and email distribution channel for the research but heavily augments opinion and insight through social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Kerravala is also heavily quoted in business press and the technology press and is a regular speaker at events such as Interop and Enterprise Connect.
Kerravala remains associated with Yankee Group through the company's affiliate program.
Prior to ZK Research, Zeus Kerravala spent 10 years as an analyst at Yankee Group. He joined Yankee Group in March of 2001 as a Director and left Yankee Group as a Senior Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow, the firms most senior research analyst. Before Yankee Group, Kerravala had a number of technical roles including a senior technical position at Greenwich Technology Partners (GTP) where he worked with Johna Til Johnson, the founder of Nemertes Research. Prior to GTP, Kerravala had numerous internal IT positions including VP of IT and Deputy CIO of Ferris, Baker Watts and Senior Project Manager at Alex. Brown and Sons, Incorporated.
Kerravala holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.
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