Benefits of Software-defined Networking
SDN offers several advantages to organizations, including all of the following:
Centralized Management
SDN’s centralized controller allows engineers and administrators to manage the network and policies without having to configure individual devices. Administrators can allocate network resources and configure network-wide services such as access control and security policies from a central location.
Greater Scalability
SDN gives administrators more control over network resources and traffic flow allowing them to adjust infrastructure and configurations to meet changing business needs. Administrators have the flexibility to add or remove virtual devices, adjust configurations, and control traffic across the SDN architecture quickly and seamlessly without having to change the physical infrastructure.
Increased Visibility
SDN gives organizations a global view of their network. With greater visibility into the network and the ability to control and monitor network traffic from a central location, administrators gain a holistic view of the network to monitor the overall performance and identify potential security threats.
Improved Efficiency
SDN reduces network complexity, increasing the speed and efficiency of network management. Administrators can quickly and easily automate network functions and provide resources to support faster innovation, decreasing time to market. Real-time visibility into network performance also allows you to optimize network performance for more efficiency.
Cost Savings
Because SDN uses virtualized resources, it eliminates the capital expense (CAPEX) associated with purchasing and upgrading costly hardware. Using virtual network components also reduces operating expenses (OPEX) because there are no physical devices to maintain, configure, and upgrade, leading to a reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).
Disadvantages of Software-defined Networking
SDN provides several important benefits, but there are also a few disadvantages that should be considered.
Controller Vulnerability
SDN’s use of a centralized virtual controller creates a potential single point of failure in the network. If a breach occurs at the controller level, it can potentially propagate to other network infrastructure. Because of this, it’s crucial to monitor access to the controller and implement controller redundancy and automatic failover.
Increased Latency
As organizations add more resources to the SDN architecture, the speed of interaction between the controller and the devices may decrease. This complexity can lead to controller overload, which increases network latency and reduces the overall reliability of the network.
Device Security
Even though SDN increases visibility and by extension, security of the entire network, it lacks the security mechanisms that typically come with physical routers, switches, and firewalls. This increases the vulnerability of the network to external threats.
SDN Use Cases
Here are a few common scenarios where SDN can be used to solve networking challenges.
New Corporate WAN
When implementing a new wide-area network (WAN), consider using SDN-compliant network equipment. With SDN, you can better handle the different types of traffic, QoS, or VPN routing requirements for multiple end-user applications.
Google has used SDN in its WAN since 2012 to interconnect its data centers, collaborating with the Open Networking Foundation in 2018 to develop four new interfaces to replace OpenFlow, the original protocol for SDN.
Upgrading an Existing Network
As the infrastructure of a physical network becomes obsolete, consider adding SDN-compliant products to support greater operational efficiency, business expansion, programmability, and service efficiency.
For example, when upgrading network hardware, an SDN solution can simplify network management, tighten security, and facilitate internet of things (IOT) across several buildings and approximately 2,000 users.
Scalable Data Centers
SDN can also help enterprises scale to manage data storage and consumption more efficiently. This can include deploying a new data center in a matter of hours and provisioning network resources in minutes, instead of weeks.
Software-defined Networking FAQ
Can I install SDN alongside my existing network?
Yes. SDN can be used with a traditional network via an orchestration platform that can bridge the legacy and SDN infrastructure. This can be a gateway device that allows the SDN domain to flow through to the legacy network or by using hybrid switching, which can handle both OpenFlow and traditional networking, splitting the ports between the two domains.
Are SDN and SD-WAN the same?
SDN focuses primarily on abstracting network infrastructure in a local area network (LAN) such as a data center within the enterprise perimeter or a service provider’s core network. Alternatively, SD-WAN provides software-defined application routing across a wide geographical area to connect data centers, branch offices, and remote users on a national or global level.
How does SDN support today’s networking needs?
SDN supports several features required by modern applications in today's networks. These include the ability to move data between distributed locations, shift workloads between private and public cloud infrastructure, quickly add or remove network resources, and deliver the speed and flexibility to support emerging technologies such as edge computing and IoT.
Gain Agility, Portability, and Visibility with Software-defined Storage
Software-defined networking is part of a growing industry trend that includes software-defined storage (SDS) and other software-defined infrastructure that help businesses separate how a resource is managed (control plane) from how it is accessed (data plane) to achieve greater agility, portability, and visibility.
Pure Storage® Purity is a high-performance software-defined storage solution that enables you to decouple storage hardware from software for more flexible and agile storage. With Purity, you can leverage the benefits of software-defined storage to:
Monitor and optimize storage from a single interface.
Seamlessly move workloads between cloud and on premises to meet changing business requirements.
Create a unified storage solution by consolidating workloads and aggregating data.
- Leverage the predictable, high speeds of Pure’s all-flash storage arrays for enterprise apps and workloads.
