SDN - Where to start?

[Jeffrey Pouzar]

A month ago I was at a Cisco seminar and heard the first mention of software-defined networking (SDN), and now it seems like it's everywhere and everyone is talking about it but few actually know what the heck it is.  I know the concept is still in its infant stages and will take years before it truly revolutionizes the enterprise landscape (and a network engineer's traditional role in IT), but at the same time it's not going away and I'm struggling to figure out what it means for the industry.

There's so much out there from so many vendors and viewpoints.  And for every good, informative article there are about a hundred pointless cliche blogs without any relevant substance.  Does anyone have any good suggestions for materials, knowledge base articles, or places to start when trying to wrap one's head around the idea of SDN and where it may take us?

For collaboration's sake, I'm currently sorting through the following materials in an effort to acquire a fundamental understanding of Cisco's current SDN strategy today:

http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/trends/open_network_environment/library.html

Thanks in advance - Jeff

[Shahzad Arain · Accepted solution]

Hello Jeffrey,

software-defined networking (SDN) is a big step towards solving a real world problem more effectively with Lower customer risk for new technology insertion these solution will not involve rip and replace of existing infrastructure.

SDN comprise of three core components.

1) Controller:

Controller is device that talks to all of the network equipment in given domain, learns the network topology and programs

network from a central point. Controller can be used to deploy business policies holistically and in device independent

way. controller act as middleware that abstract the underlaying physical network components, switch, firewalls etc.

2) Switching:

Both hardware and softswitches have important role in SDN, as it is essential forwarding tables and that will be programmed by controller.

3) Overlay Networks:

Overlay are used to create network containers that are logically isolated from one another while sharing the same underlaying network.

Thanks

[Jeffrey Pouzar]

Thank you for your response.  Since this post, I've been very happy to see Cisco add significant substance behind the SDN movement, specifically in the realm of ACI.  I look forward to how this will unfold.