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SDN and OpenFlow are great if you're a company full of programmers like Facebook and Google are. They approach everything as a software problem. For many (most?

SDN and OpenFlow are great if you're a company full of programmers like Facebook and Google are. They approach everything as a software problem. For many (most?) other companies the network is just something that has to work and not a core part of their business. You need to be able to hire a network engineer that can come in cold, with a bunch of vendor certifications on their CV, and understand your network. Most places don't want to hire a programmer to sit around and code up new spanning tree algorithms for their network. They just want to plug servers in and have it work. The people that are interested in SDN are running into the limits of what OSPF/BGP/MPLS can do and are going to work around it but many places don't run networks that complex in the first place. I think there are a lot of gains to be made from changing the industry though, for the first time the hardware is becoming a commodity made by Broadcom and Intel (Fulcrum) just like servers. In the past you bought Ciscos or Junipers to get the custom ASICs that made the thing work, those days are coming to and end. But I wouldn't count the big companies out just yet, they have a massive head start writing software and have huge service organisations and a whole industry full of engineers that have paid to get certified on their hardware and aren't going to want to see the value of that education fall to zero. The winners are going to be the hardware companies that really are software companies at heart - Juniper and Arista are the best examples. Cisco has always loved its hardware and been way behind on software development.

insaneirish 13y ago
This switch does not require SDN or OpenFlow. The idea is you run whatever OS on it you want that provides the features you need. For instance, you can go buy an OS from Cumulus (mentioned in the article) and run it on an ODM switch and run traditional routing protocols and topologies. It is only a matter of time before other somewhat traditional vendors start selling their OS for commodity hardware as well. Arista will likely be the first.
illuminate 13y ago
"They approach everything as a software problem. For many (most?) other companies the network is just something that has to work and not a core part of their business. You need to be able to hire a network engineer that can come in cold, with a bunch of vendor certifications on their CV, and understand your network. Most places don't want to hire a programmer to sit around and code up new spanning tree algorithms for their network. They just want to plug servers in and have it work" Do you not need network engineers to implement Cisco products?
- mprovost 13y ago
  Yes but they aren't programmers. Configuring routers using vendor tools and standard protocols is a different thing to SDN where all bets are off. It's going to take a different skill set - some people will make the transition and some won't. All of the major network vendors (most notably Cisco) have put a lot of effort into their education programs so that there is a certified pool of talent out there to run their equipment. And all of those people have a vested interest in the status quo. The OpenFlow talks that I've attended have been presented by people that are openly hostile to network engineers which doesn't help the situation.

insaneirish 13y ago

This switch does not require SDN or OpenFlow. The idea is you run whatever OS on it you want that provides the features you need. For instance, you can go buy an OS from Cumulus (mentioned in the article) and run it on an ODM switch and run traditional routing protocols and topologies. It is only a matter of time before other somewhat traditional vendors start selling their OS for commodity hardware as well. Arista will likely be the first.

illuminate 13y ago

"They approach everything as a software problem. For many (most?) other companies the network is just something that has to work and not a core part of their business. You need to be able to hire a network engineer that can come in cold, with a bunch of vendor certifications on their CV, and understand your network. Most places don't want to hire a programmer to sit around and code up new spanning tree algorithms for their network. They just want to plug servers in and have it work" Do you not need network engineers to implement Cisco products?

mprovost 13y ago
Yes but they aren't programmers. Configuring routers using vendor tools and standard protocols is a different thing to SDN where all bets are off. It's going to take a different skill set - some people will make the transition and some won't. All of the major network vendors (most notably Cisco) have put a lot of effort into their education programs so that there is a certified pool of talent out there to run their equipment. And all of those people have a vested interest in the status quo. The OpenFlow talks that I've attended have been presented by people that are openly hostile to network engineers which doesn't help the situation.