1. Cisco
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Cisco, the biggest provider of networking equipment, predicts it will be the leader in software-defined networking (SDN) by early 2015, according to CEO John Chambers.
The networking firm, which last week said it would buy network orchestration specialist Tail-f Systems for $175m, is focused on offering more flexibility in a way that doesn’t threaten its hardware sales
Mike Fratto, principal analyst of enterprise network systems at Current Analyst, told CBR Cisco’s enterprise SDN strategy has mainly coalesced around Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).
He said: "ACI’s biggest benefit is the abstracted policy based process where nodes and applications are abstracted from physical instantiations.
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"The abstracted policy model is similar to abstracted methods in open source projects like Open DayLight and OpenStack’s Congress. ACI has other advantages over competitors (and disadvantages!), but it’s the policy model that is game changing for Cisco."
About 1,000 customers are now using its SDN products, such as the Nexus 9000, which are controlled by application policy infrastructure controllers (APICs).
2. VMware
EMC World 2014; Photo source: Drserg, Shutterstock
The virtualisation firm claims its SDN products make networks programmable and scalable, allowing enterprises to implement technology changes simply by upgrading the software.
"I think VMware can be credited with being the catalyst that sparked the networking industry to action. Prior to VMware acquiring Nicira, network integration with virtual server systems was focused on attaching VM’s to the network and little else," explains Fratto.
"When VMware acquired Nicira, eventually spawning NSX, the hardware vendors had to react or risk being marginalised and they did so, and are doing so, by bringing together automation and integration technologies to their networking products which will ultimately make networking a first class citizen in virtualised data centres."
Earlier this month, VMware said channel partners can start reselling its NSX network software, released in 2013, as the company seeks to compete with rival Cisco in the space.
3. F5
Photo source: F5 Networks
F5 Networks is another company carving out an architectural approach for SDN.
The firm’s Synthesis Fabric includes virtual BIG-IP appliances and the BIG-IQ platform, and aims to cut the cost and complexity of what the company has dubbed software defined application services (SDAS).
"F5 has been promoting automation and integration of its BigIP products for years. More importantly, however F5’s Dev Central is a model for community development that took time and resources to develop," says Fratto.
"Building a developer community is a difficult but necessary for networking vendors because the success of SDN will depend on building a thriving community that writes and shares code which ultimately floats all boats higher.
F5 has also announced partner support for its Synthesis architecture product in November 2013.
4. HP
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HP, which is a long standing partner of F5, has been broadening its support for SDN, with the release of range of hardware and software designed to exploit OpenFlow communications protocol.
"It is probably the leading proponent of OpenFlow with it enabled across the vast majority of its switching and routing platforms but that isn’t HP’s primary contribution to SDN," says Fratto.
"HP’s primary contribution is its application focus. Every new network application will be run on or integrated with their VAN Controller and available via HP’s SDN App Store. For example, HP already has integration with Microsoft’s Lync to optimize UC&C traffic, HP Network Sentinel to evaluate traffic, and an upcoming location aware SDN application coming in 2015."
The firm recently announced that its 5400 Series of network switches has been updated with "greater performance and capabilities", enabling customers to take greater advantage of SDN.
5. Open DayLight
While Open DayLight isn’t a vendor, they have, in a relatively short time, become a force in the SDN world with broad industry support.
The likes of Oracle, Extreme Networks and Flextronics are the latest member to join the project, in efforts to advance their SDN and network function virtualisation (NFV) plans.
Fratto explains: "Nearly every networking hardware vendor has pledged integration and a few, notably IBM, have based their SDN products on Open DayLight. ODL is still in very early stages, but it promises to provide a solid foundation for SDN products and even provide a set of open, uniform northbound API’s provided vendors don’t fork the software into incompatible implementations."
The OpenDaylight project, formed in April 2013, aims to build a common and open SDN platform for developers to utilise, contribute and build commercial products and technologies.
