With only one week until Open Networking Summit (ONS) 2013, the announcements have started.  The first is not a vendor announcement, but an industry announcement.  It is the coming out party of industry wide open source project, OpenDaylight.  There have been rumors about OpenDaylight for a few weeks now, so it is good to finally see what it is all about.

The idea behind OpenDaylight is simple.  To move the industry forward toward next generation (software defined) networks.  That sounds like the ONF a bit, but maybe their play is still to focus on standard APIs --- not sure, but look forward to an announcement from the ONF as well.

Cisco wants to empower the network engineer, just like Embrane, to deploy virtual network services.  But it’s not easy due to servers, virtualization, virtual networking, and flat out fear to not run big specialized boxes.  Cisco has the Nexus 1110 that can run multiple Cisco virtual services such as VSM, VSG, etc.  However, there are limitations on quantities and what particular services can be run on the 1110.  Cisco cannot create a pool of 1110s and deploy virtual resources dynamically.  There is a GUI manager, but not a hypervisor-like manager.  The Nexus 1110 is a physical server running a Cisco modified hypervisor.  This hypervisor doesn’t seem to be off the shelf.

I wanted to do a post on different tools used to automate physical and virtual networks. They were going to include BMC Blade Logic Network Automation (BBNA), Cisco Network Services Manager (NSM), and vCloud Director. OpenStack may have found its way in there too.  Note: Cisco NSM is the product of the LineSider acquisition.

The post was going to compare what each product calls its network construct. For example, in NSM network containers are defined, but in vCloud, External, Organization, and vApp networks are defined. Other tools refer to networks as domains and PODs.  Trying to decipher what the next tool is going to call a basic Layer 2 segment will likely take even more time.  Imagine trying to remember all of this?

I flew down to Florida last night to get back in the car at 5am this morning to drive back to Jersey with my grandmother. After just finishing the first shift driving which was about 4.5 hours, I figured it would be a. good time to write instead of dozing off.

There is a lot of SDN hype right now --- that is obvious. And it is way too early to tell who the big winners will be over the coming years. What we do know though is networking is changing. The skills that employers will want and need will likely be different. That is my opinion anyway. Not just in networking, but in IT.

So as a network pro, where should you focus your time if you want to stay ahead of the game?

In my previous post, Network Virtualization Part 1, I talked about some fundamental differences between server virtualization and network virtualization.  The focus was how VMware created a hypervisor for server virtualization and how they created a network operating system for network virtualization.  Now I will focus on some other properties that should be included in network virtualization --- to enable these properties could mean features and functions in both the virtual and physical networks.

This post compares high level concepts of server virtualization and network virtualization.  There are benefits as we know them today for each, but it is just the beginning for network virtualization.  The model we see in the future may very well be completely different than what it looks like today, but at the very least overlays will be around for quite some time given the amount of industry momentum.  I’ll also give my thoughts and speculate on things I’d like to see from the vendors in this space. 

In follow up posts, I hope to give more examples of how the physical network should adapt to help optimize the virtual network.

I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like – maybe that will always be the case.  It’s hard finding the time with a day job and when each post takes planning, writing, editing, and proof reading.  Going forward, I will try writing shorter posts.  Hope this is the first of many that fits that build.

I find myself talking about SDN more and more referring to myself as SDN optimist insinuating there are many pessimists out there.  Why do I sense that?  I’m a network guy at heart and can’t imagine the past few years without reading about the future of networking and at the same time have learned a lot in other areas of the data center and IT.    It’s time to start doing.  That goes for all of us.  Hopefully those that are “anti” realize controllers don’t have to be all that bad and they can benefit everyone – not just the large scale networks.

Software Defined Networking is more than network virtualization in the data center.  Virtual Networks can be deployed with or without programmability and/or central control.  On top of that, we have these SDN principles of controller based networking, automation, programmability, overlays, and network slicing that can also be leveraged outside of the data center that very few are talking about.  Look at multi-tenancy for business centers, hospitality, K-12, Higher Ed, MDUs, and even Sports Arenas.  In the future, as SDN matures we’ll surely see these verticals as adopters in the Campus SDN market.

Check out my first blog @ TechTarget that goes into more detail on Campus based SDN: What makes SDN and network virtualization matter? Campus network apps

I’ve read many of the predictions and trends that are expected to be seen in 2013.  I’ve seen articles that say straight up 2013 will not be the year of SDN, but on the other hand, have read articles that say the complete opposite – that SDNs are already here and now the focus is on the applications to further drive adoption of Software Defined Networks.  Who’s right?  We’ll have to wait and see because there isn’t a right or wrong answer at this point.

If you do look at many of the predictions being made you’ll notice a few common themes that I tried to capture here: