10 Ways Software-Defined Networking Will Change IT
September 30, 2013 03:30 PM When networking professionals converge upon New York for Interop this week, software-defined networking (SDN) stands to establish itself as a major theme throughout session talks and informal conversations. As the industry watches the results of early adopter case studies and hears pundits advocate for this new means of controlling the network fabric, consensus is building for the potential that SDN could be an IT game-changer. Here's how, in the words of experts from around the industry.
SDN Will Raise The Bar On Hardware Resource Efficiency
While industry watchers don't necessarily agree about how SDN will change the network hardware pricing model, many concur that organizations will get more bang for their hardware buck through SDN.
"What once required space in a rack along with associated power and cooling can now be accomplished with software running on fewer general-purpose computers," said Steve Riley, technical director for the CTO office at Riverbed, explaining that hardware will be able to support a higher workload concentration. "Significant cost savings come from consolidating physical resources while increasing the quantity of available upper-layer services."











