Is your company’s data center ready for SDN?

How to find out if it is possible to develop Software Defined Networks in a company.

In recent years, new technologies focused on Data Centers have emerged such as SDN (Software Defined Networking or, in Spanish, Software Defined Networks) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization or, in Spanish, Virtualization of Network Functions). These technologies optimize performance and reduce costs for companies that employ these strategies in enterprise data centers.

In today’s post we will show the current stage of some of these technologies and the most important considerations for making a decision on their implementation in enterprise data centers. Additionally, we will explain the essential role that technologies, such as Ethernet cables, play in adding value to companies’ infrastructures and creating a solid foundation for technological processes.

Capex and Opex: what is the best strategy for IT?

There is no longer any doubt about the adoption of SDN and NFV. This is a necessity, and regardless of the CIO’s adoption timeline or what technologies they excel at, one thing is clear: businesses must have an integrated, reliable physical network. The reason for this is that virtualization is taking over data centers and has created a very seamless and disruptive experience in the areas of computing, storage and network processes.

Data center managers, both those assigned within companies and those of external vendors, are faced with the challenge of being more agile and responsible in implementing innovative applications and new services, at a speed never seen before. And to do this, organizations must invest in data center networks. However, database managers must also ensure that the networks being invested in today do not impede the adoption of critical new technology trends, such as SDN and NFV. Data center managers need additional space to grow and protection mechanisms to preserve emerging technologies to be deployed in the data center.

But what is SDN?

SDN is a networking approach whose control is not in the hardware, but in a software application called a Controller. This approach abstracts the underlying infrastructure of the network so that it can be treated as a logical or virtual entity.

SDN separates network control and routing of network plans to facilitate the optimization of each of them, as well as providing a centralized view of the distributed network. The goal of SDN is to enable network engineers and administrators to make changes quickly. In a software-defined network, the network administrator can shape traffic from a centralized control console without having to modify individual switches. The administrator can modify the rules of any network switch as needed, prioritizing, excluding and even blocking certain types of packets with highly granular controls.

Everything your company needs to know about SMART SPEAKERS

And what about NFV?

NFV is an initiative to virtualize network functions that were previously managed by the owner with dedicated hardware. It is a new way of designing, implementing and managing network services, which separates network functions (including Network Address Translation [NAT, sigla en inglés para Network Address Translation]Firewall implementation, Intrusion Detection, DNS [Domain Name System o, en español, Sistema de Nombres de Dominio] and Caching) of the Owner’s hardware tools with the aim that these functions can be performed through software programs. NFV leverages standard IT virtualization technologies to consolidate multiple types of networking equipment into industry-standard servers, switches, and storage capacity to reduce data center hardware, power expenses, and space needs.

Mutually beneficial, yet independent of each other, SDN and NFV share a software-based networking approach to support more scalable, agile, and innovative networks. However, SDN mainly focuses on traffic flow control and network management. NFV is more specialized, more focused on virtualization and optimization of specific network services and functions such as routing, application delivery controllers, load balancers, and firewalls.

Top 5 Benefits of SDN and NFV

1- Greater agility in business

SDN improves network organization, management and control which helps network engineers and administrators respond quickly to changes in business requirements. Through SDN, administrators can control traffic flow from a centralized location, eliminating the need for manual registrations and updates of individual switches. The flow, priorities and even security of data traffic can be defined centrally and distributed to all switches quickly and efficiently.

2- Lower operating costs

SDN’s ability to automate network provisioning and orchestration can reduce operational costs by reducing overall management time by reducing the likelihood of errors that can cause network outages.

3- Lower capital costs

NFV reduces the cost of networking devices, such as routers, firewalls, and security devices, by allowing these devices to run on common platforms. By supporting software-based networking functions, NFV reduces costs related to hardware, power, and space requirements. More importantly, NFV can significantly reduce network complexity, simplifying the management of network operations, reducing potentially costly errors, and accelerating the deployment of new features.

4- Better quality of service

SDN also optimizes quality of service by ensuring that business applications and organizations achieve an adequate level of responsiveness by prioritizing certain types of network traffic. For example, a latency-sensitive voice or video call may receive a higher priority than an email, since latency and congestion issues are less critical in the latter case.

5- Optimized security

SDN can improve security by blocking traffic redirection based on software-defined rules. This feature is particularly useful in multi-tenancy use cases, such as in Cloud Computing services. on site or outsourced.