The recent popularity of the software definition network in Silicon Valley has been recognised by many in the scientific community

Led by such a technological trend, many well-known VCs, and even large technology giants, have invested large sums of money into start-ups in the field.

But at the same time, the new technology, which has been in existence for only two or three years, has some unresolved problems, including the immaturity of technology and the lack of a common technology use standard or will largely constrain the further popularization of the technology at the enterprise level.

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When Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States last year, the technology companies on the hurricane path were eager to move their data centers to other locations quickly. However, the transfer of corporate computer servers is not something that can be done overnight, which often requires a few days or weeks ahead of time to make detailed plans. However, with the advent and popularization of the new technology, as the "Software Definition network" (software-defined networking, hereinafter referred to as "SDN"), this problem is likely to disappear because it can effectively help businesses to complete the urgent migration of data within hours.

SDN Technology is a new network architecture proposed by the research group of Stanford University in the United States, its core technology OpenFlow realizes the flexible control of network traffic by separating the control surface of network equipment from the data plane, and provides a good platform for the innovation of core network and application. Now, many investors, including some of the world's biggest technology companies, are investing in SDN start-ups.

To be fair, the current SDN market is relatively small, only about 300 million dollars a year to contribute to the network industry revenue, and the entire network market scale reached 30 billion U.S. dollars. Also, existing SDN customers are not sure how to maximize the flexibility of SDN technology. But the industry's traditional technology giants, including IBM, Cisco and Microsoft, have begun to look to the Sdn field. In this respect, the well-known market research institute IDC estimates that the annual revenue of the SDN business will reach $3.7 billion in 3 years.

In this area, VMware, a well-known cloud software developer, has been acting as early as last July, when it bought a network virtualization start-up, Nicira, at $1.05 billion. Meanwhile, leading network equipment makers, including Cisco, Oracle and Juniper NX, have been snapping up a batch of SDN start-ups last year. Some private-equity firms are funding support for SDN start-ups, including Embrane and PLEXXI, which have received some funding. Meanwhile, Intel and Goldman Sachs have invested in another SDN company, Big Switch NX. It is reported that the company was founded in 2010, the goal is to become "private cloud network VMware."

Because of the technical characteristics of SDN, such enterprises can often be more flexible to control the server data. "Over the past 30 years, Nicira, who also invested in the Embrane and Plexxi's venture capital company Lightspeed Venture Partners, said John Frionis," We've been selling hardware and software, and retailers want consumers to buy both. ”

Great potential

Since SDN has only just emerged in the last two or three years, the SDN standards vary between vendors, leaving some of the big customers who do not want to be limited by a single supplier to retreat. But it is certain that with the gradual entry of large clients in this market, the establishment of a common SDN technical standards is imminent.

Network equipment supplier Cisco is the most closely associated with hardware network equipment, so the company has the greatest risk in the SDN business area. However, many analysts agree that Cisco is keen to rule the market.

The US investment Management company, also Cisco's sixth largest shareholder, T. "There will certainly be other suppliers in this market, but I think Cisco will be the main beneficiary of this technology in the next few years," said Justin White, Rowe price investment analyst. For companies, the most common practice is to keep the United front with giant companies like Cisco. ”

The popularization of SDN technology will allow enterprise customers to build their own network, and this network is easier to adjust, upgrade, and do not need too many human operations. "What people need is automated solutions," says Lauren Cooney, senior director of Cisco Software Strategy Koernig. For example, they want to be able to automatically give different scenarios to different users, so they don't always have to go back to the original point as they used to, and adjust the solution manually. ”

Akshay Sharma, a market research institute Gartner analyst, Akshay a case of "Mother's Day" to explain the advantages of SDN technology. The phone operators ' devices are idle for most of the year, but they have to deploy more equipment to cope with the surge in consumption during the holidays, Sharma said. For example, on Mother's Day, everyone wants to call their mother to greet them.

"Well, what if you could make adjustments to the internet on Mother's day and give it priority to all the voice calls that greet your mother?" Said Sharma.

Indeed, mobile operators can use the SDN technology to deploy their own network throughput more reasonably and to be used for other purposes when the pressure is small. However, many experts believe that the current SDN technology has not really got people's attention, but the next 12 months will be very important, because the industry is promoting a SDN technology universal standard. These companies, including Cisco, IBM and Juniper NX and Citrix Bae, have worked together to create an OPEN-SOURCE SDN software collaboration program called "Opendaylight."

Meanwhile, Sharma expects the SDN technology to usher in a turnaround in 2015.

Market concerns

"One of the most important challenges that enterprise customers face in fully accepting SDN technology is ' they are still confused about this technology," said Dante Malagrino, Malaglino CEO of the Distributed software platform, Embrane. ”

Malaglino revealed that Embrane is currently seeking to collaborate with each client to meet their different needs without destroying existing technologies, rather than trying to build a broad standard.

It is understood that Malaglino previously worked for Cisco for some time, 2009 founded the Embrane. At present, Embrane has successfully received two rounds of financing, the total amount of financing reached 27 million U.S. dollars. Malaglino also revealed that many of the existing venture capital companies are very interested in Embrane, the company is expected to continue to finance in the next 12 months.

However, as there are other competitors in the existing SDN technology, many companies have not yet made their final decision and remain on the sidelines of the technology. "Of course, Palovol technology is interesting, but the technology is still a few years away from maturing and convincing companies to accept it," says Rich Parower, Seligman Global Marvell Fund, a Technology investment fund Columbia. ”

On the other hand, customers are also not sure how they can benefit from SDN technology. In a recent survey commissioned by Cisco to third party investigators, one-third per cent of respondents said that "the frequency with which SDN technology is actually put into practice is almost as low as the frequency of seeing Bigfoot, Elvis Presley and the Loch Ness Monster (Loch Ness Monster)." ”