In the recent Silicon Valley, Financial and IT Industry news , you’ve likely been hearing about how various data center and networking vendors are responding to the rapid – even disarmingly disruptive – rise of Software Defined Networking (SDN) . And, perhaps it’s not so surprising that even the most recent round of next-generation architectures, new vendor initiatives and multi-million-dollar acquisitions aimed to overhaul networks with SDN-like capabilities are taking heat.

Financial analysts, networking industry insiders – even networking vendor executives themselves – are viewing  “hardware defined networking” as locking clients into proprietary gear with hierarchical, fixed network topologies from the edge of the data center network all the way to the enterprise core. And, for NOT delivering on the promised business value, much-needed network simplification, and dynamic application awareness heralded by SDN.

SDN, as a recent CreditSuisse First Boston report states -- by allowing software to be separate from the physical infrastructure -- will allow competition at multiple points in the network, which was not previously possible. The Business Insider, an influential financial blog, is out with an exclusive story about how SDN disrupts the conventional networking landscape, noting that Amazon decided to forgo a $1B networking deal -- instead acquiring only about $11 million and using cheaper hardware and SDN for the rest of its needs. "Maybe we are doing hardware defined networking . . .,” admits one networking vendor.

On IBM’s part, we are intent on leading the charge to put the Software in Software Defined Networking.In fact, IBM is collaborating intensively with progressive IT organizations and IBM partners to evaluate, pilot and deploy new Software Defined Networks, enable OpenFlow via the OpenDaylight Project, and the advanced Network Virtualization in IBM’s SDN for Virtual Environments(SDN-VE). IBM System Networking delivers innovation-driven solutions built for this new modern era of Smarter Networking across the IBM portfolio of Expert Integrated Systems -- including a full portfolio of integrated networking solutions for Software Defined Networking, Network Virtualization and Network Convergence.  IBM strives to lead the way-- to derive SDN’s promised economic value, network simplification and dynamic application awareness -- in collaboration with IBM clients and sellers.

But, you may ask, why is today IBM uniquely positioned to harness Software Defined Networking? As Lippis Report noted, “IBM is unique in that its roadmap provides for the linkage of applications to call upon network resources, an advantage that very few firms offer.” At the dawn of this modern era of Open, Virtual & Software Defined Networking -- IBM is already well positioned to enable and equip the deep visibility, agility and awareness now made imperative by business and big data -- between applications, workloads, servers, storage and cloud. And, to “Put the [S] in [S]DN.”

Learn more about IBM’s Software Defined Networking solutions today.

Polomi Batra
IBM Systems & Technology Group
pbatra@us.ibm.com