You may have heard of software-defined networking (SDN) and its ability to simplify some of the complexity associated with cloud environments. SDN separates the control plane and the forwarding plane of the network, so administrators have more control and more opportunities to improve application performance. SDN allows enterprises to bypass the public internet and connect to the public cloud, which removes concerns about latency and improves security and performance.
Reducing Complexity
The key to SDN’s advantages is its ability to centralize and automate network control. When events such as unpredictable network traffic threaten performance levels, the enterprise can respond quickly and efficiently. The separation between forwarding and control panels means that the network is programmable and administrators have a high level of control over network resources.
The complexity affecting the enterprise network comes in a variety of forms. From Internet of Things (IoT) devices to cloud solutions for communications, enterprises are being overwhelmed with data. Further, the data no longer exists in silos and integration between systems and applications requires a high level of connectivity and the agility to meet changing business needs for handling data and systems.
Why SDN Is Critical
Legacy networking — and its hub-and-spoke design — simply hasn’t kept up with the demands of cloud computing. When there are application performance problems, network administrators have a difficult task trying to determine where the problem lies. Many enterprises try to address the problem by purchasing more bandwidth, but this is not a permanent or effective solution.
SDN offers a virtual data center network that frees IT teams up from spending time resolving service disruptions. When an enterprise uses SDN and its automation tools, it no longer needs to go through a service representative or a technician to provision services. The centrally managed system allows you to make all changes to deployments or adjust provisioning in-house.
SDN also makes sense for enterprises with branch locations across a wide geographic area, particularly in cases where there aren’t full IT teams at each location to manage network provisioning and troubleshooting.
It’s possible that an enterprise IT team could manually scale the network infrastructure to accommodate the needs of a digital transformation, but this would be expensive and time-consuming, while also failing to utilize the network to its fullest extent.
SDN can automatically recognize changes to your network environment and allow your business to scale and adjust to new applications, infrastructure changes, and security updates.
You’ve probably heard about SDN, but you’re likely to hear more about it in the future. What began as a niche technology for specialty network applications is becoming a widespread solution to enterprise network complexity.
To learn more about SDN and the specific benefits you can expect to see in your business environment, contact us at Enterprise Visions. We can demonstrate the ways in which you can simplify your network through automation and improved control and visibility.