Digital Spotlight Software-defined Networks Pioneers The .

Digital spotlight Software-defined networksThePioneersSDNofSoftware-defined networks can giveIT the agility and flexibility to managetoday’s dynamic data centers andprivate cloud infrastructures. Some earlyadopters have already jumped on board.Here’s what they’ve learned.By sandra gittlenI l l u s t ra t i o n b y Ta v i s c o b u r nSep tember 201 5 Co m pute rwo r ld3

Digital spotlight  Software-defined networksPublic school teach-ers in Enfield, Conn.,are active grantgetters. But whilethe technologies they bringinto the classroom from thosegrants, such as lab carts withApple iPads, are beneficial tostudents, they can also wreakhavoc on network resources.“School administratorswould tell us that [voice overIP] phone calls were breakingup, and when we looked at utilization, we saw 90 iPads haddownloaded a 15-minute educational video from Netflix at thesame time,” says Enfield CTOPaul Russell.At one time, Russell wouldhave addressed the problemby increasing the amount ofInternet bandwidth to thetown’s 12 schools, overprovisioning to accommodate occasional bursts in activity fromthe hundreds of cloud-basededucational applications teach-ers utilize. But Internet accesswas costing the town 100,000for four 100Mbps connections(with the state providing a fifth100Mbps connection), so Russell needed a more cost-effective and efficient solution.Enfield chose to become apioneer of software-definednetworking, or SDN, to buildflexibility and agility into thenetwork that supports 5,000K-12 students and 4,000 devices. SDN decouples thecontrol and forwarding planesin switches and routers, enabling IT to fine-tune networkresource allocation. With anabstracted software-basedcontroller, IT can dynamicallymanage traffic flows across theenterprise.Early adopters have chartedtheir own paths to SDN’s benefits. Some, like Enfield, areusing SDN to gain visibility andcontrol over bandwidth usage.Others are finding its powerlies in centralizing and simplifying certain aspects of networkmanagement. Many have foundthe flexibility provided by SDNenables them to re-assign ITstaff to other projects.Research firm IHS Infoneticsrecently predicted that the mar-Schools don’t need a gigabitof Internet access all dayevery day. In fact, we foundthey only need it 30% to 35%of the time.Paul Russell , CTO, town of Enfield, Conn.ket for SDN Ethernet switchesand controllers will reach 13billion in 2019, up from 718million in 2014. The firm saysthe SDN market is still in a formative stage.In some cases, SDN deployments require a forklift upgradeof switches and routers becauseorganizations lack the necessary programmable interfaces.Enfield was fortunate that theExtreme Networks switches itpurchased in 2012 were SDNcapable. “We haven’t had toadd anything to the switches toenact the SDN,” Russell says.In April, Russell launchedan SDN pilot project at theelementary school that had theworst bandwidth battles. UsingExtreme’s SDN platform, whichconsists of software on a virtualserver, teachers now are able toschedule when technology labswill be in session. The networkthen automatically directs resources to the associated cartsSep tember 201 5 Co m pute rwo r ld4

Digital spotlight  Software-defined networksfor that period of time, whilealso protecting other traffic —such as VoIP calls.“We could have continued topour money and resources intoaccess, but schools don’t needa gigabit of Internet access allday every day. In fact, we foundthey only need it 30% to 35% ofthe time,” he says. With SDN,Russell is aiming to shrink network connectivity — which hecalls “the most expensive commodity” — from five 100Mbpsconnections to three 20Mbpspipes capable of bursting to100Mbps. If the test is successful, the town will save nearly 60,000 annually. In addition,with fewer pipes into and out ofthe buildings, there will be lesschance of a security breach.In fact, Russell is tackling adistrictwide SDN deploymentfor the 2015-16 school year.Specifically, his goal is to havethe technology in place in timefor state testing so students,We had such a hardwaredependency that we’d eitheroverbuy in hopes that the officewould grow, or install minimumhardware and face possibledelays in expansion later.Mark Baker, CIO, JAS Forwarding Worldwidefaculty and staff will have theresources they need. SDN alsowill help block non-essential resources such as cellphones andnon-official machines, so userscan’t sap Internet resources orfacilitate cheating. “We’ll haveproper provisioning across allschools,” he says.Easing Network SetupAt Atlanta-based JAS Forwarding Worldwide, an international freight forwarder that operates 270 offices in more than 80countries, SDN has been a godsend, says CIO Mark Baker.In the past, provisioning anew office involved numeroushassles, such as dealing withlocal providers on connectivity, trying to purchase JAS’spreferred Cisco gear in thelocal market, and ensuring theappropriate level of security.Then an IT staffer would haveto either fly to the location forthe installation or spend a dayon the phone talking an on-siteemployee through the process.Sometimes language barriersand currency differences wouldintroduce more problems.“We had such a hardwaredependency that we’d eitheroverbuy in hopes that the officewould grow, or install minimum hardware and face possible delays in expansion later,”Baker says.The breaking point camethree years ago when JAS debuted a new global ERP system.To visit each office and makethe network changes necessaryto support the new applicationwould have been impossible, soBaker deployed Aryaka ONE, acloud-based SDN-like servicefrom Aryaka. The cloud-basedservice centralizes network resource management, enablingBaker to use generic off-theshelf switches and routers andto automate bandwidth allocation and other application requirements.Once IT negotiates a baseconnection with the local provider, the way the networkdelivers resources to the endpoint can be managed throughSep tember 201 5 Co m pute rwo r ld5

Digital spotlight  Software-defined networksthe Aryaka ONE portal. “Asan office grows, we can growservices from our data centerand other vendors in the cloud,”Baker says. “We can truly alignwith business needs.”As is the case with mainstream SDN technology, users of Aryaka ONE must haveswitches and routers withprogrammable interfaces anddecoupled control and forwarding planes. Instead of undertaking a forklift upgrade to replaceswitches that don’t have thenecessary capabilities, JAS isreplacing equipment as it wearsout. “You could take an aggressive approach, but we’ve done itthrough attrition. Patience hasbeen a virtue,” Baker says.He has made JAS’s once-homogenous Cisco network moreheterogeneous, using servers,routers and firewalls familiar tolocal users. “We have been ableto acquire [gear] locally, sometimes at a lower cost,” he says.I l l u s t ra t i o n b y Ta v i s c o b u r nAryaka ONE is layered over thatequipment for network resource control.Baker says his biggest challenge has been the mindset ofstaffers. Network engineers areaccustomed to hands-on configurations and were reluctant toembrace a more automated andaggregated approach. “The technology was the easy part; gettingpeople to adapt and change ismore difficult,” he says.With Aryaka’s service, Bakerwas able to meet JAS’s “very aggressive” deployment schedulefor the global ERP system. “Youcould have the greatest application in the world, but the userexperience dictates success orfailure,” he says.An Open-source ApproachResistance to change in IT isnothing new for Ram Appalaraju, an adviser to Open Networking Summits Inc. (ONS), anonprofit that organizes eventsdesigned to accelerate SDN innovation and adoption. In addition to focusing on SDN’s ability to disrupt the networkingindustry, ONS also promotes anopen-source approach to network services delivery.Brocade, Extreme, NEC, Fujitsu and Ciena are just a few ofthe switch manufacturers thathave joined the open-sourceSDN movement. “We are encouraging vendors to embraceinteroperability so that usershave a choice of hardware thatis best suited for the job,” Appalaraju says. “We want to see thewhole environment becomeSep tember 201 5 Co m pute rwo r ld6

Digital spotlight  Software-defined networksprogrammable through opensource technologies so that deployments can be accelerated.”Separating the control planefrom the data/forwarding planeis just the first step toward realizing the benefits of SDN, according to Appalaraju. “Realvalue is when the control planeis removed out of the switch orrouter and centralized to provide a single global view at scalethrough a server,” he says. “Abstraction needs to happen thesame way as we have seen withLinux on x86 servers,” so businesses can use generic serversand “create a nimble experience” while reducing their capital expenditures.Appalaraju says early SDNdeployments he’s seen have included orchestration of networkservices, management of network bandwidth and automation of network configurations.Like Baker, Appalaraju sayscultural and organizationalchange is necessary for SDN toflourish. “It’s no longer abouta network engineer or a serverengineer,” he says. “There hasto be a confluence between thevirtualization architect andnetwork architect, and a movetoward a DevOps model.”He adds that this shift willsave businesses money becausesalaries keep rising for IT professionals who have the expertise necessary to run a networkapart from other services. “SDNtakes away the need for specialized skills,” Appalaraju says.Appalaraju says he’s confident that SDN, along withvirtualization of network func-tions, will become commonplace. “Servers and storage gotvirtualized; networks, whichcontinue to be a problem, arenext,” he says.Laying a FoundationAs users like Russell and Bakerwade deeper into SDN’s waters,Andy Chun is just beginning tolay the groundwork for an SDNnetwork.Chun is CIO at City University of Hong Kong, which has35,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff members and isgrowing quickly. The institutionrecently implemented a fouryear curriculum, a move thatTrying to configure, maintainand change the network isincredibly demanding. SDN isthe next logical step.Andy Chun, CIO, City University of Hong Kongdoubled the number of studentsand required a 30% increase infaculty members. IT supportsthe university proper, a community college and continuingeducation.Deploying network servicesis especially difficult for Chun’sIT team because as the university expands it’s strugglingwith a problem that plaguesHong Kong: limited physicalspace. New employees have totake offices wherever space isavailable — “they aren’t alwaysin the physical vicinity of theircolleagues,” Chun says — andthey’re frequently moved.IT has to ensure that everyone in a particular departmenthas the same level of networkaccess, no matter where they’relocated. That means Chun’steam is regularly reconfiguringrouters and switches and layingnew cable.Complicating matters evenfurther is the fact that the uni-Sep tember 201 5 Co m pute rwo r ld7