Factors to be considered in SDN architecture

The data center is no longer talking about the adoption of the Software Definition Network (SDN), but the "How to do it" problem. SDN provides a good environment for standardization and automation, and many vendors are proposing solutions to the problem--and even many vendors have begun to offer some of the early technologies available. However, IT administrators should think carefully about what they should invest in. SDN is not necessarily the most cost-effective solution in all cases, and sometimes other technology investments may yield greater or more direct benefits.

In addition, IT administrators should take into account that vendors are not proficient in all areas of SDN, so there are some issues that can be solved with SDN, and vendors ' solutions are not workable. Manufacturers assess the current industry landscape as the most profitable opportunity, which can also seriously affect the availability of SDN solutions for IT administrators.

The good news: compared to other technologies, data center networks (such as WANs and LANs) will receive more attention, and product development will be faster. Network administrators should focus on the different levels of functionality, compatibility, price, and performance-depending on how the major vendors operate. In view of the complexity of SDN as a new technology and SDN market, IT administrators must consider the following 7 factors in SDN decision making:

1, the industry facing

The proportion of individual employees in some industry data centers is much higher than in other industries, and the size of data centers is also an important factor in considering Sdn. Amazon, Google, Facebook and Azure have used their SDN solutions a few years ago, and SDN has become an integral part of data center operations for their current size. For these large vendors, their goal is to standardize with vendor-independent, and their next target is the top switch. It is a good idea to emulate the operations of some cloud giants for large data center operators that manage a lot of racks. In them, we can see that the open Source Reference Architecture commercial version released by the "nouveau riche" supplier is still worth looking forward to, with some more attention to the standardized solutions from mature vendors. The presence of SDN has significant implications for the standardization of data centers and can help us transition from a single hardware customization source to a vision based on commercial hardware.

2, the scale of the network

Data centers close to or over 1000 active IP addresses are also useful for SDN, even more so if most IP addresses are assigned to virtual machines. It's not hard to find out from vendors: we can expect managers/virtual machine (VM) vendors to become SDN controllers and drive hardware vendors to expose rich southbound SDN APIs. The controller will be a new project in the IT budget, and it can be expected that virtual machine vendors will also want to control vswitch, racks, and as an independent part of their core software.

3, applications and workloads

Organizations that have a stable it operating system and do not use their agility as a competitive advantage may delay the pace of SDN, and using sophisticated technology will be more cost-effective, such as putty.

4, the number of VMS in the network

In addition to the number of IP allocations to your primary datacenter virtual machine, the total number of virtual machines within the organization's network is also a factor in considering whether to build Sdn. Imagine using the SDN controller to manage a data service VM from two aspects of northbound and southbound: Based on network traffic analysis, it may be possible to determine that the VM is more efficient when the customer is near a remote data center; The controller sends a command to the Vmotion server. It also coordinates network changes across the enterprise and configures new addresses.

5, agility, flexibility and scalability requirements

Especially suitable for mixed cloud or local data center customers, SDN can greatly improve their flexibility by removing the dividing points between traditional networks. Local, remote, and virtual networks are naturalized to a common entity, differentiated by performance, rather than physical interfaces. We can see from the vendors: Cloud vendors are also constantly expanding the field of hybrid management tools, Microsoft is particularly focused on its platform mixed support, although only on its own platform.

6. Requirements for simplifying security measures and controlling application access

Because it involves network security and access, using traditional strategies, application best practices, policy-based management, and routine audits are a big challenge. In SDN, the network itself can define and attach protocols to any content, such as applications, users, workflows, terminals, and devices. If an organization needs complex or critical security requirements, then SDN Intelligent Services will be critical, and throughout all vendors they are also moving toward intelligence and automation.

7. Flow of personnel and capital resources

It is customary in the IT industry to identify IT projects with a clear rate of return such as SDN, with limited budgets or an IT organization with very few experts that is unlikely to be a viable candidate for Sdn. As with server virtualization, IT organizations of all sizes will benefit from SDN, but this benefit cannot be achieved overnight. We can see from the vendors, even if the network virtualization market has matured for some time, Microsoft has only recently through Hyper-V to the "free" VM hosting in some small and medium-sized enterprises, and no manufacturers will care about the small budget Sdn.

Finally, IT administrators should consider whether the vendor pushed the solution to address common network challenges in the spirit of the original research in Stanford University in 2005.  The dream of SDN is also the dream of the administrator--the network software layer separates from the hardware layer, based on the rule, the automation reduces even eliminates the artificial factor, thus reduces the configuration error and the downtime time. (Zebian/Meng Xiangjie)