Software-Defined Network, SDN

Current trends, such as the growth in the number of devices connected to the Internet, exponential growth in information, the development of cloud technologies, BYOD, big data, are changing corporate telecom before our eyes. There is an increase in network traffic, and business increasingly needs to configure large-scale networks.

Software-configured SDN (Software-Defined Networking) virtualizations NFV and Network Function Virtualization technologies can simplify this task, which allow you to transfer network elements under the control of a configurable one, ON make them more intelligent, and facilitate their management.

Traditional network management usually requires the configuration of each device connected to the network separately. For example, configuring a VLAN access control list on multiple Cisco switches inevitably involves logging in to each and making the necessary settings. Such an approach has worked well in the past, but can be time consuming when organizations add devices brought by employees and numerous cloud services to the network.

SDN can help because the goal of network management is to allow different devices (whether owned by the company, employees, and various manufacturers) to connect to networks and use their resources with restrictions based on the principles of "who-what-where-how-why" each time you connect. This requires constant policy enforcement across all devices. In the future, the policy-changing administrator will not be forced to spend hours making changes to each device separately, and these changes must be agreed throughout the enterprise. This is the role of SDN. They provide consistent, relatively fast network management, allowing changes across the entire network from a single management console.

Also important is that the network virtualization engine is built on free software, allowing network administrators to manage large data flows more quickly and efficiently from a single console.

Virtualization destroys the business of server manufacturers: today it makes no sense to buy a new server for a new application, and therefore the cost of iron cannot be increased. Manufacturers need to look for new sources of revenue, for example, it is better to adapt their products to virtualization, and today many companies' products are initially optimized for hypervisors. With the advent of SDN, a similar situation will be observed in the network equipment market - network virtualization is designed to remove the limitation on their scaling fundamental for the development of clouds. It is still possible to manually manage networks within multiple clusters within the same data center, but when there are many such clusters and they are geographically spaced, the task is complicated many times. When it comes to interoperability between different data centers, this is just a field for Cisco.

SDN presents network hardware manufacturers with new challenges to support new cloud scenarios, such as the ability to transmit multiple packets over long distances. At the same time, VMware plans to release hardware-independent network hardware virtualization systems.

Proprietary control panels of routers and switches are black boxes for users, and SDNs potentially allow them to bypass, making the panels open for remote access by third-party programs through open protocols such as OpenFlow. Bandwidth may be affected, but now it is not so important - today the possibility of unlimited scaling of networks, removal of their isolation, transparent controls and reliability is much more important. Any organization interested in cloud building needs to look at network virtualization and SDN technologies. In the next five years, all network equipment manufacturers will adapt their solutions to SDN, and in seven to ten software-defined networks will become common practice.

Prerequisites for SDN and NFV

A number of experts characterize the current situation in the network industry as "critical and revolutionary." The market's dominant closed (proprietary) solutions represent "black boxes" for applications, and the compatibility of solutions of different vendors is ensured at best at the interface level. Networks are too complex, making them difficult to scale and manage, reducing their reliability. Obviously, this hinders the further development of networks and applications operating in them^[1]

The main prerequisites for the emergence of the concepts of "Software-Defined Networking" (SDN virtualizations) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are, first of all, the rapid growth of data traffic and the number of devices connected to the network.

At the same time, the traffic itself becomes heterogeneous - if in the late 1990s. Its basis was the transfer of data and files that do not require special requirements for the channel, with the exception of data transfer speed, then by the mid-2000s, the issues of ensuring service quality (QoS), minimum delay in the channel (latency), etc. This is primarily due to a change in the structure of user traffic, which began to dominate real-time communications (Real Time Communications,) RTC -, VoIP video services, etc. Operators have a real need for dynamic traffic prioritization. For example, in some cases priority should be made for the ftp protocol, in others - for SIP and vice versa.

In the field of mobile communication, the installation of additional macros (base stations) after reaching a certain density threshold of their location no longer gives a significant increase in the capacity and capacity of radio access networks (RAN), so the next step is the use of small cells (femto and picocot). As a result, configuring large-scale networks becomes a challenge and requires major changes in the design, operation, management, and management of networks.

SDN and NFV Concepts

SDN and network function virtualization (NFV), according to analysts, undermine the market for traditional network products and threaten the revenue business of companies such as Cisco, Juniper Networks and Hewlett-Packard on hardware. SDN and NFV transfer network control and task definition functions from expensive equipment to software that can run on cheaper mass-produced systems. The goal is to create more mobile, programmable and automated networks.

Key principles of software-configurable networks are separation of data transfer and management processes, centralization of network management using unified software tools, virtualization of physical network resources. The OpenFlow protocol, which implements an interface independent of the manufacturer between the logical network controller and network transport, is one of the implementations of the concept of a software-configurable network and is considered the driving force of its distribution and popularization.

The main essence of SDN is the physical separation of the network control plane from the forwarding functions by transferring control functions (routers, switches, etc.) to applications running on a separate server (controller).

The result is a flexible, manageable, adaptive, and cost-effective architecture that can effectively adapt to the transmission of large streams of heterogeneous traffic.

The main ideas of SDN include:

• Separation of data plane and control plane
• Significantly simplify data plane NEs
• a single, unified, vendor-independent interface between the control layer and the data layer;
• logically centralized network management performed by a controller with a network operating system installed and implemented on top of network applications;
• virtualizing physical network resources.

The basic ideas of SDN were formulated by specialists from Stanford and Berkeley universities back in 2006, and the research they initiated found support from large operators and Internet companies (Google, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo). As a result, in March 2011, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) consortium was formed, the composition of which is rapidly expanding, in 2013 it included more than 100 companies, including Brocade, Citrix, Oracle, Dell, Ericsson, HP , IBM, Marvell, NEC, VMware, etc.

ONF develops, first of all, the OpenFlow protocol, which implements the interaction of the controller with network devices, but a number of members of this organization are interested in more universal specifications. In April 2013, Cisco, Citrix and IBM formed the OpenDaylight.org structure, the purpose of which is to release an open public SDN standard based on free software.

Thus, the SDN attempts to separate two planes - network management and transport, and ultimately to centralize distributed network management in order to more efficiently use resources and automate network service management. NFV is focused on optimizing network services within the network by separating network functions (for example, DNS, caching, etc.) from the actual implementation of hardware. It is believed that NFV allows you to universalize the software, accelerate the introduction of new network functions and services, and at the same time does not require the abandonment of the already deployed network infrastructure.

For mobile networks, virtualization is expressed, in particular, in the concept of C RAN - Cloud (Cloud) or Centralized (Centralized) radio access network. In this case, the remote radio heads (RRHs) and antennas are separated from the baseband units (BBUs), which are located in the so-called base station hotel and are connected via fiber optic cable to the RRHs. Thus, operators can build cloud radio access networks on the basis of the NFV principle, placing in the cloud the main functionality of the base station, which is responsible for digital signal processing, synchronization, control, statistics collection, etc. It is possible that this type of cloud and virtual radio access networks can significantly change the balance of power in favor of IT vendors.

SDN forms a virtual layer for the network, similar to how a hypervisor or virtual machine does it for servers or desktops. The OpenFlow protocol allows SDN software to communicate with the corresponding network elements - routers and switches through open Application Programming Interface (API). The path of packets in a software-configurable network is determined not by the manufacturer's equipment and the data flow processing algorithms "sewn" in them, but by a special control loop in the software.

A virtualized network feature can run on one or more virtual machines. Thus, services are insensitive to the iron itself. These can be standard servers, storage systems, switches. NFV allows you to program services that were previously available only in the form of hardware solutions^[2].

SDN Architecture Diagram

SDN and NFV allow you to simplify network configuration, scale networks and services on demand, automate network management, increase the power of the physical infrastructure by overlaying virtual, reduce CAPEX and OPEX, and in the future - quickly reconfigure the business for current tasks.

The first large SDN network was implemented in 2012 by Google based on in-house switches. Thus, it was able to remove the limitations inherent in the solutions used by traditional operators. Traffic is redirected between data centers in a way that is convenient and advantageous at the moment. In addition to Google, SDN technology is used by NTT, Pertino, AT & T, Telecom Italia and a number of other^[3].

There are two strategic directions for the implementation of SDN, NFV and clouds. The first is to improve network efficiency and service flexibility. The main goal is to reduce the cost of operating the network and reduce the time to market. The second aims to benefit from a combination of new business opportunities. The goal in this case is different - the formation of new differentiated cloud services and dynamic, depending on the current demand profile, their provision. On the first path are such companies as the German Deutsche Telekom and the Spanish Telefonica, on the second - the Japanese NTT and the American AT & T.

Practical effect of NFV/SDN implementation for B2B client

• Service Management from Personal Office
• Obtaining Network Functions as Services with clear SLA.
• Reduce the cost of maintaining your own network functions and IT systems by moving them to the operator's side
• Access to the Services in 24/7 mode even when the physical location of the office is changed
• Access the Services in a minimum amount of time when connecting an additional office
• Possibility of service test operation without the need to implement it

Practical effect of implementing NFV/SDN for the provider

• Lower connection costs - services are virtualized and do not require dedicated hardware
• Using COTS equipment (standard x86 architecture hardware)
• Reduce or completely cancel visits to the client to connect additional services
• Access to Services in 24/7 mode even when the customer moves
• Reduce time to connect a new client and add new services
• Lower operating costs
• Quickly and elastically scale services according to needs
• Unified Network Connections - Lower Number of Different Types of Terminal Equipment

Integrator as Service Provider

• No cost of bringing the service to market - the platform can be placed in the third-party Date Center or on its own integrator servers hosted by the Operator.
• Using the Revenue Sharing model: there is a client - there is income, there is no client - there is no cost
• Accumulated experience and expertise allow you to implement and market new services in the shortest possible time
• Flexible use of both Vendor and Open Source solutions for network functions
• Solution support and development is on the integrator side

Software Defined Everything (SDX)

The key consumers of the SDX concept are data cents, operators and large corporations, whose technology and IT infrastructure require flexible approaches to designing, implementing, managing, and operating a network architecture.

SDN for DaaS and BYOD

Recently, virtualization has become popular in the market, including in the DaaS format (Desktop-as-a-service). This model provides a ready-made virtual workplace that each user can customize for their tasks. Application or workplace virtualization technologies are indispensable to centrally manage and monitor enterprise applications. This ensures controlled access of employees from any device and significantly reduces the likelihood of confidential data leakage through the employee's personal devices. This approach helps implement the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) model, while significantly simplifying infrastructure management and securing enterprise data. Over time, this leads to a significant reduction in operating costs and increases employee loyalty.

In this scenario, SDN can take full advantage. Adding a new virtual workstation does not require the configuration of various network equipment, as well as the addition of new rules on service devices (Firewalls, ADC and others).

All actions can be automated and made from one place - the orchestrator. A system that will handle hypervisor, storage, and network configuration.

SDN Technology Transition Strategy

For the fastest and most efficient SDN deployment, you must first identify the challenges that specialists may encounter when implementing new technologies^[4].

First, you need to identify the goals that SDN implementation has. Project managers should clearly understand why this is necessary and ensure the coordination of joint work between units that may have never interacted in the past.

Secondly, provide a new approach to network monitoring. Since the network appears to be a single, logical whole, there are special requirements for synchronizing endpoints and the controller. The tasks of monitoring communication channels between SDN components must be solved through the SDN solution itself or by third-party systems. In addition, monitoring is necessary when looking for the location of a problem that may arise at the junction of various technologies.

Thus, before you start deploying SDN, IT must understand what infrastructure is already in place and what needs to be done to enable the underlying systems to respond quickly to changes associated with the implementation of SDN technologies.

Key Drivers and Implementation Constraints

The choice in favor of SDN is due to many reasons. First, classic approaches to solving network problems based on their virtualization lag behind the level of server and storage virtualization. As a result, networks are static and do not correspond to the rapid dynamics of the development of^[5] IT business^[6].

Secondly, when networks are scaled, a large number of distributed network devices appear. Under the changed conditions, the means of traditional management become heavy and inefficient.

Thirdly, the traditional binding to a network vendor, which preprocesses the necessary measures in the case of certain network transformations, is also untenable. The main problem is that business is not guaranteed support for future applications and services, which deprives it of flexibility in choosing the future path of development.

• The monthly global IP traffic in 2016 will be 110 EB, CAGR = 32%, according to analysts.
• Video will account for 55% of traffic, the web - 23%, file sharing - 21%, voice - only 1%.
• ARPU is steadily declining.
• At the same time, CAPEX and OPEX are growing!

The world is becoming cloud-centric.

THERE IS A growing GAP between the current, largely static and over-reserved telecommunications architecture and IT infrastructure, on the one hand, and the cloud adaptive concept of service and application consumption, on the other.

Growing traffic from different devices encounters a "narrow neck" of networks

• Soon there will not be a single piece of land without fixed or mobile communications.
• The high density of coverage with fixed broadband networks is stimulated by the spread of cable and fiber-based services.
• There is an explosive growth in the number of mobile devices that are always online.
• And in fixed and mobile networks, the nature of the load changes - from communications to cloud-centric interworking.
• The growth of M2M devices increases network load.
• The transition to cloud services requires both vertical (increasing resources) and horizontal (new points of presence) rapid scaling of network functions and their interaction - in a few seconds/minutes as opposed to days/weeks.

The requirements for the quality of content are constantly growing, the nature of its consumption and generation is changing, so new approaches are needed to transfer and manage the flows of heterogeneous traffic.

• The structure and volume of traffic on networks are determined by the user consumption profile, and the traffic dynamics become more uneven.
• Applications are distributed that combine a large number of devices and generate a large amount of traffic (inter-machine interaction, the Internet of Things). Effective scaling of such applications requires new network architectures that can seamlessly connect the data and signal transmission plane.
• Efficient management of such loads and traffic in networks is impossible due to endless redundancy, which is very expensive.

Compare Traditional Networks and SDN

The traffic management loop in the SDN network moves from the device layer and network elements (physical or virtual) to the centralized layer of special software.

From the point of view of operators, interest in SDN is associated with increasing the efficiency of network equipment, reducing costs, improving network security and providing the opportunity to programmatically create new services and quickly load them into network equipment.

SDN forms a virtual layer for the network, similar to how a hypervisor or virtual machine does it for servers or desktops.

• The OpenFlow protocol allows SDN software to communicate with the corresponding network elements - routers and switches through open Application Programming Interface (API).
• The path of packets in the SDN network is determined NOT by the manufacturer's equipment and the data flow processing algorithms "sewn" in them, but by a special control loop in the software.

The main drivers of SDN/NFV market development include:

1. Lower capital and operational costs, total cost of ownership of the network

In the case of mobile communication, the CAPEX savings are particularly significant if the operator has a sufficiently developed fiber network. In this case, the company can reduce capital costs by using C-RAN up to 60%. Otherwise, the savings on CAPEX will be about 30%. The reduction of CAPEX, in particular, is due to the reduction of base blocks (BBUs). For the same reason, there is a decrease in OPEX - due to lower power consumption ¼ and lower maintenance costs. According to China Mobile, the green alternative in the form of cloud radio access networks reduces electricity bills by 71% compared to traditional networks.

According to NEC, the introduction of a virtualized packet core (vEPC) within the framework of the NFV concept will allow the mobile operator to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) (Fig. 2).

2. Speed of service implementation and adaptation

The virtual (software) ecosystem is initially programmable to a much greater extent than the "classical" network. It is expected that this opportunity will allow you to quickly implement and adapt the service and get away from the current concept of middleboxes - a huge amount of software and hardware in the operator's network that implement the corresponding service.

At the same time, one of the main constraints for the development of SDN is the lack of a single standard and the desire of a number of vendors to impose their "own" decision on the market, although this approach is absolutely contrary to the basic principles of SDN. As a result, there is still a lot of uncertainty in SDN, and potential consumers of software-configurable solutions have taken a wait-and-see position, following the emergence of successful large projects in this area.

Common goals that drive the SDN direction include^[7]:

• Flexibility in creating, VPN allocating bandwidth, and allocating network segments
• Interfaces that allow users to select standard network templates
• creation of system interfaces;
• quick detection and replacement of failed connections;
• Powerful firewall between users and the outside world
• Significantly reduce human-hours for network management
• Automatically scale to fit your needs and traffic.

The rationale for the economic effect of SDN is still an art type. Quantifying intangible things, such as a higher level of security or a faster response to the demand for changes, is a complex matter. As a result, they prefer to focus on tangible things, such as reducing network maintenance costs, reducing product acquisition costs, and so on. Intangible benefits, however, are much more valuable than tangible ones, especially if the enterprise as a whole becomes more flexible.

Strategic Directions for SDN, NFV, and Cloud Implementation

What will be the data centers of the future?

Standard. Heterogeneity is the reality of clouds, it must be able to manage, so the next breakthrough in the industry after clouds towards increased efficiency will not be possible without standardization. To integrate and scale clouds, there are not enough standards, a single, open platform for all vendors, a common stack of technologies. Hence the complexity and high price of hybrid configurations assembled from many clouds. In the case of a software approach, you can create an open platform built on a modular basis. The question is no longer the impossibility of doing this, but the required qualifications of data center designers. The future is for software-defined data centers that will replace Service Desk portals by automating management processes. Piecemeal network, memory, security, computing, and application management will be replaced by integrated on-demand application delivery process management without the intervention of the IT service^[8].

The main difference is that the traditional data center is a set of hardware devices (servers, network devices, storage systems, computing and software control resources), while SDDC is built as an add-on over the existing hardware infrastructure, where all data center subsystems are virtualized and assembled into a secure software system. Configuration, management and maintenance of the virtual components of the data center is carried out programmatically, then the necessary commands are automatically transferred to^[9] hardware resources^[10]

The Software-Configurable Data Center (SDDC) technology, which has recently become popular, aims to improve the performance of the center by optimizing at the application and hypervisor levels. However, Forrester analysts believe (autumn 2013) that when managing centers, you should strive to optimize at the level of specific business processes - processing financial data, solving supply problems, and so on - and not at the level of individual applications, be it ERP systems, CRM, HCM and others.

Why switch from a traditional data center to SDDC?

The main system element in a traditional data center is often called a switch. This network device is responsible for three main functions: management of connected devices, traffic management and physical data transfer.

When switching to the software-defined data center model, the device and traffic control functions are centralized and translated into software form. Their teams ensure that the entire SDDC infrastructure works smoothly. Only the data transfer function remains on the switch.

The changes make the switch simpler. But the data center receives additional capabilities: the tasks of scaling the infrastructure are simplified, the configuration and management functions become more flexible, additional resources for working with the application load, optimization, and error correction appear.

The transition to SDDC also allows you to get higher processing power, increase storage resources and network switching, and this is achieved without allocating additional territory for the data center or installing new racks.

Without collecting up-to-date information about the operation of the data center, there is no movement forward

Reality and competition in the market lead to the fact that the owners of data centers have to constantly update their own fleet of equipment, increase computing capacity and seek to increase efficiency in its management. To do this, they need to have complete information about the current infrastructure. If the data collection is incomplete, it is extremely difficult to make informed decisions. Without a clear understanding of what is happening in the data center, the equipment periodically falls into an idle state.

With the development of virtualization in data centers, the requirements for its equipment also increase. To ensure infrastructure availability and to control the consumption of computing resources, they are not limited to information collection. It is necessary to receive it in full and be sure of the relevance of the collected data. If these conditions are met, you can optimize the physical infrastructure and switch to software data center management.

The collected equipment information in traditional data centers is often stored in spreadsheets. When the time comes for inventory and modernization, it is from them that the search for free space begins. These "documents" verify the reserves of electric capacity, check the adequacy of resources for cooling, the presence of free ports for connection.

However, these methods of data collection are now becoming less inefficient, especially in the face of the growing popularity of clouds and virtualization. When updating the data center with its optimization, you need to use specialized tools for data collection and analysis.

Software-defined data centers (SDDC) with NFV devices

The solution is to replace the hardware components of the data center infrastructure with a set of x86 servers connected by a single communication field and forming a computing environment, and a set of Virtual appliances that implement the functionality of these hardware components

Global SDDC Market

According to Research & Markets, the volume of this segment of the global market amounted to $25.61 billion in 2016. Over the next five years, steady growth is expected at an average annual growth rate of 26.57%. The market is projected to reach $89.21 billion by the end of 2021.

Unlike the usual data centers, the basis of which is "iron" - servers, storage systems, network devices, etc. - SDDC is an add-on over the existing infrastructure, which is controlled programmatically. And therefore, it is necessary to protect such data centers differently - traditional solutions in the field of IS are too resource-intensive and slow down the work of business applications. This is especially noticeable at the time of scanning and updating the antivirus databases launched by the virtual machine. At the same time, disabling a virtual machine for a long period entails the appearance of a weakness in the security system, since the IP components installed on it cease to work.

Dynamics, projects, activities

SDN and NFV are developed by industry alliances

2016

Definition of Forrester

IHS: fast switch to SDN is canceled

According to the results of the new IHS study for 2016, the main share of SDN implementation in data centers now falls on the installation^[1] test stands^[2].

In 2015, 89% of service providers surveyed expressed a desire to build test stands for SDN research. According to the report for 2016, real results were lower - 67%. The number of pre-operational checks and real SDN implementations was also significantly reduced compared to what was expected in 2015.

This report also notes a slowdown in implementations of bare-metal switches (BMS) - network devices shipped without firmware, but with a software boot environment that allows the installation of compatible network OS. These devices are primarily designed to replace proprietary network switches.

Orange Business Services and AT & T to develop SDN standards

and Orange Business Services AT&T signed a cooperation agreement in the summer of 2016 to develop open code and standardization initiatives that will accelerate the adoption of standards for software-defined network (-) software-defined networking SDN virtualizations and network functionality (network function virtualization -) technologies NFV. Companies share a strategic vision that not only equipment, but also networks should become more intelligent, which will reduce costs and complexity of operation. The joint efforts of partners will bring closer the emergence of more maneuverable, flexible and responsive to the needs of users of the networks of the future for industry and business customers.

Deploying new virtual network services and features is now overly complicated. Network service providers and other network companies have to deal with private standards, closed architectures and equipment from many different vendors focusing on different platforms and specifications. AT & T and Orange are organizing a discussion of industry standardization issues to move together to address them. The adoption of common standards and interfaces will help the industry simplify technological integration, increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, which will accelerate innovation and development processes.

When SDN and NFV technologies are based on common, open, and interoperable technology standards, it will help overcome the challenges of delivering high-security, application-aware, and proprietary network services. The emergence of an ecosystem of functionally compatible services and equipment suppliers will positively affect both software-defined network technologies and business customers who can deploy services faster and easier, configure their infrastructure in real time and create innovations.

Based on a network-centric approach, AT & T and Orange intend to make the benefits of their vision of SDN and NFV technologies more accessible to both business customers and the industry. Companies will focus on:

• Ensure that both customer-located telecommunications equipment and network services are truly versatile through the creation of common network infrastructure specifications and can operate in any software-defined network environment with different network software.
• Simplify and make NFV implementation more efficient with common recommendations and templates that make the technology's supplier ecosystem more mature and easier to use.
• Develop standardized application programming interfaces that enable multi-vendor software-defined network architectures to communicate with each other, making deploying virtualized network functions and services faster and easier.

2015

Huawei, Open Network Operating System and Open Networking Foundation to create SDN ecosystem

On March 12, 2015, Huawei announced plans, together with the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), to create an open innovative SDN industry ecosystem that helps operators increase profitability from SDN networks.

Ultra-high-speed connections and cost reduction have led software-defined networks (SDNs) to play a key role in transforming the architecture of operator networks.

The company's cooperation was announced at a press conference, in which executives exchanged ideas on developing an open, innovative SDN environment and agreed on the process of creating an open-source SDN platform.

At a briefing, Huawei announced that its SDN solutions fully support the ONOS platform. Huawei intends to maintain close cooperation with ONOS, ONF and Open Platform for NFV (open platform for NFV), aimed at creating a single, open and programmable SDN network architecture.

Global SDN acquisitions and investments (infographics)

2012

TechRepublic interviewed 111 respondents in the spring of 2012 about new technologies that they are going to implement over the next 12 months. As can be seen in the chart below, SDN is not their first choice, but this was not a surprise because half of the respondents surveyed were unfamiliar with SDN. But among those who at least heard something about SDN, 64% may plan to introduce them next year.

Many organizations reported that they plan to apply SDN, but very few did - only 5% reported implementation, as seen in the first schedule. Interestingly, 56% of respondents are interested in SDN next year, which means it is unlikely that this will fall into their 2014 budgets.

VMware acquired a number of technologies and companies in 2012 to build a stack of solutions for the data center of the future. This, first of all, was bought for a fairly large amount of $1.26 billion by the startup Nicira, which offers an open platform for distributed network services, which allows you to centrally manage computer networks, which, in particular, will make it possible to release network equipment virtualization systems independent of hardware manufacturers soon. Another acquisition is DynamicOPs, a cloud automation company. Its products allow you to control the processes of providing resources and managing services in heterogeneous environments: private and public clouds, physical infrastructures, structures based on various hypervisors and web services. All of this enables end-to-end management of virtual, physical, and multi-cloud environments while ensuring integration with existing processes and systems.

Nicira in the fall of 2012 has a beta version of a solution for enterprise data centers based on virtual networks (Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN)), which allows you to scale local area network segments over networks from the clouds.

Time Tape: SDN and NFV Technology Development

Traffic consumption by subscribers is becoming more uneven. The need for network resources dynamically changes depending on the time of day, major events, business activity, and so on. On the part of end users, the requirements for the quality of content are constantly growing, the nature of its consumption and generation is changing, so new approaches are needed to transfer and manage the flows of heterogeneous traffic.

2006-2011

The principles of software-configurable networks were formulated in 2006 by specialists from Berkeley and Stanford, and in 2007 a protocol was developed with, open code OpenFlow allowing you to get away from "manual" network management, and an Open Network Technologies laboratory was created - ON.lab.

In 2009, software-configurable networking technologies appeared on the list of 10 fast-growing technologies compiled annually by MIT Technology Review [2], after which they became (along with the Openflow protocol) the subject of close attention not only in academic research, but also from the commercial sector.

In 2011, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) consortium was created to promote and standardize SDN and coordinate the development of OpenFlow. ONF includes more than 40 technological leaders in the world. Many leading network hardware manufacturers release solutions for SDN/NFV.

Situation with SDN in Russia

Forecast and assessment for 2016-2017

SDN and NFV forecasts in Russia are not as rosy as they are for the global market. The introduction of SDN/NFV in commercial networks will take place in 2016-2017, according to 80% of Russian operators and providers who participated in the CNews Analytics survey. The same deadline is indicated by more than 60% of Russian operators surveyed by J'son & Partners Consulting. The volume of the Russian SDN segment by 2017 will amount to $25-30 million. This is the assessment of the world's leading vendors. The main users of SDN and NFV will be the owners of large data centers and federal telecom operators.

• SDN is the "missing link" of virtualization.
• SDN is a new network architecture, the network management layer is abstracted.
• SDN uses all existing equipment, although it introduces qualitatively different principles of its operation and organization of network management.
• SDN is best suited for creating converged infrastructures.
• SDN is a key innovation approach to the development of network architecture.
• The key consumers of SDN are data centers, operators, corporations.
• In Russia, SDN technologies are recognized as decisive at the government level.
• Software-defined networks will appear at the leaders of the Russian market in 2016-2017.
• So far, SDN is considered by Russian operators only as a way to reduce costs.
• However, leaders are already aware that this gives fundamentally new BUSINESS opportunities.

2014

In 2014, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation held a competition for the study and development of IT infrastructure management tools in corporate and departmental computer networks based on PKS/SDN and BCC/NFV technologies. The Government of the Russian Federation has included SDN and NFV in the list of priority areas of science, technology and technology. The objective is to create problem-oriented computing environments for solving complex application problems.

"In 2014, the first startups in the field of SDN and NFV in the Russian Federation were launched - WiMark Systems and NFWare, and the first Russian SDN-controller RUNOS (Russian Network Operation System) was created," Mr. Smelyansky continued. Successful testing of CPICS solutions was held at Huawei, Rostelecom, Voentelecom, United Instrument-Making Corporation (Rostec) and others.

The topics of SDN and NFV already go beyond the university-academic community and begin to attract the attention of domestic vendors. So, at the International Military-Technical Forum "Army-2015," held Ministry of Defence Russia in June 2015, Zelax (Zelax) the domestic manufacturer of communications equipment from Zelenograd, stated, in particular, his readiness to create a modern high-performance router and equipment for software-configurable PKS/SDN networks.

In early 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation included SDN and NFV in the list of priority areas for the development of science, technology and technology. The goal is to create problem-oriented computing environments to solve complex application problems.

2013

In 2013, Russian abbreviations were introduced for SDN and NFV - PKS (software-configurable networks) and BCC (network services virtualization)

"In 2013, on the initiative of the CPICS in the Russian Federation, a consortium of Russian universities was created to develop SDN technologies, which included 14 universities from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Tomsk, Belgorod and Volgograd," said Ruslan Smelyansky, director of the SPICS NP. - Russian abbreviations for SDN and NFV - PKS (Software-Configurable Networks) and BCC (Network Services Virtualization) have been introduced in the country. "

2012

In 2012, the first R & D division in the field of SDN was created within the framework of the Center for Applied Research of Computer Networks (CPICS), and the first SDN network in Russia was built on its basis. At the same time, the first research and development in the field of SDN was carried out for Rostelecom.

According to surveys, about 2/3 of Russian specialists noted that their interest in SDN is only purely theoretical in nature. Meanwhile, "using the principles of programmable network management and virtualization of network services to form problem-oriented computing environments designed to solve complex application problems" is included in the government "List of priority scientific tasks for solving which it is necessary to use the capabilities of federal centers for the collective use of scientific equipment." "The task is aimed at developing a complex of network and information technologies for building a flexible, adaptable to the specifics of infrastructure research based on the new concept of organizing network space and computing services."

The main expected results include, in particular, "the creation of a high-tech infrastructure for research in the field of computer networks on a national scale, the development of the new generation of the Internet, the testing of solutions in the field of security of the national information space" and "the construction of a distributed platform for programmable network management, ensuring fault tolerance and high availability of resources, re-organization of network services and network infrastructure, coordinated resource planning."

Due to the fact that the network equipment of foreign production in Russia accounts for, according to some estimates, more than 90%, and due to the deterioration of relations with the West, the task of replacing imports is quite acute. In this regard, the implementation of successful SDN projects gives the country the chance to become a significant partner of the leaders of this segment of the IT market.

In February 2012, on the basis of the laboratory of computing complexes of the Faculty of VMK Moscow State University, the Center for Applied Research of Computer Networks was created (CPI KS, resident of the IT cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation), whose tasks include conducting scientific research in the field of network technologies, including SDN. In July of the same year, Rostelecom OJSC signed a contract with the CC CPI for the design and creation of an experimental segment of the cloud platform for data centers based on SDN. In May 2014, Rostelecom began work on the implementation of SDN and NFV.

Thus, the concepts of SDN and NFV in Russia are at the stage of formation. According to J'son & Partners Consulting analysts, to accelerate readiness for commercial implementation, it is necessary to study and adapt regulatory aspects, technical requirements and regulatory issues; creation of associations of research universities, laboratories, specialized academic institutes, representatives of the telecom community, startups, Russian developers; attracting leading foreign experts in the field of SDN to Russia; Integration of Russian researchers and experts into international SDN-related projects.

In general, the success of SDN in Russia and the emergence of a new intensive market segment (network application software) depend on the interest of all participants in the ICT market, primarily from domestic IT companies and operators, academic and industry institutions, the regulator and other government agencies.

World market

2021: The market for software-defined infrastructures for data centers exceeded $12 billion

The volume of the global software-defined infrastructure (SDI) market in 2020 reached $12.17 billion, an increase of 5% compared to 2019. Such data was published on June 9, 2021 in the analytical company IDC.

The study notes that the dynamics were lower compared to previous years, but higher relative to the costs of other "key technologies amid a difficult pandemic year." Analysts consider the main segments of the SDI market to be:

• software-defined compute (SDC), their share in 2020 - 53%);
• software-defined storage (SDS/, 36%)
• software-defined networking (SDN/, 11%).

Software-defined infrastructure solutions have long been popular among companies seeking to reduce costs, complexity and risks in their data centers, "says Eric Sheppard, vice president of research at the IDC Infrastructure Platform and Technology Group. - While this technology has been available for many years, recent technological advances have created new features and capabilities that better align today's software-defined infrastructure solutions with today's data centers. Software-defined infrastructure is rapidly evolving and becoming the preferred platform for upgrading and transforming data centers around the world.

According to Gary Chen, research director for Software-Defined Compute at IDC, software-defined computing technologies have become the standard in data centers thanks to server virtualization. However, the market continues to develop, and recent modernization projects have shifted market growth towards cloud systems and containers, in particular, he added.

SDC technology enables virtualization of groups of physical compute modules. Such software is often sold with other infrastructure solutions, application platforms, and management software.

Experts note that  it is becoming more difficult to increase the efficiency of the data center by improving the efficiency of its individual components due to the achievement of the practical ceiling of the latter. The struggle here is for  percentage shares , and it becomes economically unprofitable to conduct this struggle, given the investments necessary for this. But there remains the potential to increase the effectiveness of the object as a  whole  due to increasing the digital connectivity of systems  and nodes, the use of special software that allows conducting data center components as a coherent orchestra.

An example is given with the cooling system in the data center:. very tangible savings can be obtained if the software-hardware "brain" of the data center controls the operation modes of the cold generation system  and the electric system  depending on  the current load and  even predicts its  changes.

The data centers themselves are becoming more software-controlled, taking into account their  interaction  with the external environment (for example,  taking into account the integration of the data center  with the external electrical network,  including smart power supply networks , with the building management system  in which it  is located , etc.).

The following companies are named the largest manufacturers of software-defined infrastructure solutions:

• IBM;
• Dell;
• Microsoft;
• Oracle;
• VMware;
• HPE;
• Intel;
• Amazon Web Services (AWS);
• Cisco;
• Hitachi;
• Fujitsu;
• NEC;
• Nokia;
• Citrix;
• Juniper Networks;
• Wipro;
• Radware;
• Red Hat;
• Nexenta Systems;
• Brocade.^[3]

2019

The volume of the market for software-defined networks and data centers is $51.7 billion

In 2019, the volume of the global market for software-defined networks and data centers (SDN, SD-WAN and SDDC technologies) reached $51.7 billion. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical company MarketsandMarkets.

Experts did not specify the dynamics relative to 2018, but they say that the market is growing and will remain so. It is expected that sales costs for software-defined solutions on a global scale will increase by 25.5% annually, and by 2024 they will reach $160.8 billion.

According to analysts, several factors contribute to the market recovery, including an increase in demand for virtualization and cloud computing in data centers. They give companies a single management of all data center components, such as network, server, storage, security, and other resources. Owners of large-scale IT infrastructures, such as cloud service providers, telecom operators and corporations, are increasingly using software-defined technologies, the study said.

Demand for SD-WAN is rising the most, largely due to the growing business needs for simple network traffic management. SD-WANs help disconnect and manage data planes and provide centralized management in network administration.

In addition, the development of the SD-WAN segment is helped by digital transformation projects, increased traffic in networks and emerging technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things and M2M communications.

The fastest cost of software-defined data centers and networks is rising among telecom operators and cloud providers.

IDC experts confirm the growing demand for software-defined technologies. For example, sales of SDS (software-defined storage) solutions will increase by 13.5% annually and exceed $16 billion by 2021.

Analysts attribute the growth of the segment to the accelerating trend of moving from traditional IT infrastructures, which primarily use the classic architecture of building storage arrays with two controllers, to cloud environments based on standard equipment. The main drivers of the SDS segment in the world are three areas: object and file data stores, as well as hyperconvergent infrastructure (HCI), according to IDC.

The further development of the global market for software-defined technologies is expected to be stimulated by the increasing penetration of cloud technologies into all areas related to the processing and storage of information. Another important factor that will affect the development of the segment in the near future, analysts call the introduction of fifth-generation mobile networks.

The market of software-defined networks and data centers will grow by 25.5% per year]]

Researchers predict that 5G networks will lead to a sharp increase in data volumes, their processing and storage will require new approaches to automating IT processes, which in turn will be the easiest to provide with software-defined solutions. As for the distribution by region, according to forecasts, most of the global market for such systems will be occupied by North America (mainly the USA), followed by EMEA, Asia-Pacific and South American countries.

The MarketsandMarkets notes that the United States has become a leader due to large-scale digital transformations in companies of various sizes. The pace of technology adoption in the US market is so high that it helps organizations virtualize their IT infrastructure and simplifies network management, hence the surge in demand for software-defined technologies.^[4]

Infonetics Research Forecast

According to Infonetics Research, SDN will reach $13 billion by 2019, up from $781 million in 2014.

2018 (forecast)

• $11 billion - Infonetics Research valuation
• $8 billion - IDC valuation
• CAGR 89.4% - IDC Score
• Estimate from investors: $35 billion - estimate of the venture capital agency Lightspeed Ventures
• 90% of telecom infrastructure owners want to implement SDN and NFV, according to a survey by Infonetics Research

According to the report of Transparency Market Research, the average annual growth rate of this market in the period until 2018 will be 61.5%, and its volume by the end of this period will reach $3.52 billion (data for the summer of 2013).^[5]

This data is in line with the December forecast of IDC analysts expecting SDN's overall market turnover to increase from $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2016. Meanwhile, in another report released in early 2014, officials from SDN startup Plexxi, website SDNCentral and Venture Partners claim that the SDN market will grow much faster - up to $35 billion by 2018.

Despite the discrepancy in numbers, the authors of most studies agree that over the course of several years, the SDN direction, promising higher programmability and scalability of networks by separating network intelligence from physical infrastructure, will grow rapidly as enterprises adapt to changes in data centers due to trends such as cloud computing, mobility, big data and BYOD ('bring your device').

In 2012, enterprises interested in greater performance, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of their networks accounted for more than 35% of the SDN market. However, according to the authors of the report, in the coming years, cloud service providers will be the fastest to master this area, since SDN will allow them to reduce operating and capital costs and provide new services to customers, thereby providing additional revenue.

Cloud building and orchestration will continue to be the fastest growing part of the SDN direction. The second most important part - SDN switching. 'SDN switching provides the first level of network infrastructure of SDN, and increase in demand for such decisions is generated by the companies wishing to master SDN technology', - it is noted in the report.

North America is the largest consumer of SDN technology, but it will be most rapidly distributed in the Asia-Pacific region in the next five years due to the widespread spread of BYOD practices in China, India and Australia.

The report also notes that this "fragmented by nature" industry is represented by a large number of vendors. Their incomplete list includes not only players already established in the network market, such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, but also startups like Big Switch Networks and larger companies, including Intel, VMware and Google, seeking to strengthen their influence in the SDN market.

2014

The volume of the global SDN market for cloud providers and enterprise networks will be $960 million in 2014, and by 2018 it will exceed $8 billion - this is the IDC forecast made in the SDN Momentum Builds in Datacenter and Enterprise Networks study in August 2014. This implies a sustained cumulative annual average growth (CAGR) of 89.4%. In the SDN ecosystem, IDC analytics include physical network hardware, controllers, network virtualization software, security services, various applications, and SDN-related professional services.

Programmatically defined networks are becoming a key driver of innovation and network development, researchers say, thanks to a combination of several market and technological factors. Among them are the growing popularity of cloud applications and services among companies and cloud providers, the convergence of infrastructure (computing/storage/networks) and the transition to software-defined data centers, the accumulated experience of server virtualization and the realization of its benefits, the growing need for a flexible network structure to support critical technologies of the 3rd platform (clouds, mobility, Big Data and the Internet of Things). "SDN is central to innovative approaches to address the challenges of today's 3rd platform, especially virtualization and cloud," said Rohit Mehra, IDC vice president of network infrastructures. As SDN grows in popularity in data centers for cloud deployment, he said, enterprise IT services are beginning to realize the usefulness of SDN for WAN and campus networks, given the need for more dynamic approaches.

2013

According to SDNCentral forecasts, the global SDN market amounted to $1.5 billion in 2013, and by 2018 it will reach $35.6 billion, that is, it will increase almost 24 times. At the same time, by the end of the forecast period, about 40% of all data network costs will be associated with SDN. According to forecasts of Research and Markets, in 2012-2016. the average annual growth of the global market for software-managed networks will be 151%.

You look also

• SDN Software-Defined Network Solutions and Projects Catalog Software Defined Networks
• Data centers of Russia and technologies for data centers
• Virtualization Solutions and Projects
• NFV Network Functions Virtualization
• Software-Defined Optical Network (SDON) Software-Configurable Optical Networks
• SD-WAN
• Software-Defined Storage (SDS)