SDN, NFV and Open Stack
Software Defined Network (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Open Stack are the new way of consuming Information Technology for Internet Services Providers (ISP) and Enterprises. Our current IT delivery model need to be aligned with our current business needs, which require us to be agile and flexible.
SDN or NFV will align the network with any business change. This dynamism already happened in server and storage virtualization. SDN and NFV move the network into the same direction by using commodity network devices and centralized controller.
SDN will change the current network model by moving the control plan from distributed network devices to a central controller, the controller will then program the network devices RIBs and FIBs via OPENFLOW or OVSDB protocol.
NFV is an overly technology, which use VXLAN protocol to build overlay network on the top of the physical IP network. NFV heavily used to create layer 2 tunnels between hypervisors for work load mobility and disaster recovery.
Open Stack will allow ISPs and Enterprises to crate ubiquitous cloud computing platform for public and private clouds. To fully leverage Open Stack, the IT infrastructure need to be virtualized via Hypervisor, SDN/NFV and virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN).
SDN, NFV and Open Stack will be disruptive interims of technology and business organization chart, these technologies will remove the organization silos, especially with integration of Open Stack by automating and abstracting the underline compute, storage and network. If organization successfully move toward this new way ofconsuming Information Technology, they will reduce their operation and capital expenses.
My next blogs will be covering how the open sources community and the leading IT vendors implemented these technologies in their product line. I will be mainly focusing on the Cisco and VMware implementation, because this two have completely different approaches. Cisco with Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) uses a combination of software and Hardware, but VMware Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) uses only software solutions.
