| | September 20146CIOReviewTrue SDN and the Networking Revolution OpinionBy Stu Bailey, Founder & CTO, InfobloxSoftware-defined networking (SDN) is so disruptive, that much ofhardware-based networking will be replaced during the next few years with new architecturesalmost unrecognizable to today's network engineers.The biggest question is not if this transformation will take place, but when. The biggest obstacle is not the technology itself--it is human nature and the self-protecting tendency of established institutions to deflect fundamental change.True SDN means Networking Hardware Ceases to ExistTrue SDN only happens when the data plane and the control plane are completely separate, with all of the control plane and much of the data plane consisting of independent software. All forms of networking hardware -- switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, WAN optimizers, etc --cease to exist. There will also be no need for expensive and proprietary ASICs or NPUs. Standard CPUs, available at much lower cost because of their vastly greater volumes, will suffice.Off-the-shelf servers, perhaps with more ports than found on current servers, will serve as the physical platform for the data plane--performing network operations as needed in addition to their The Santa Clara, CA based Infoblox, (NYSE:BLOX) is a provider of enterprise grade solutions for network control, which aim at automation of complex networks, to increase security and reduce costs. The company has a market cap of $776.95 millionThere are still many missing pieces that need to be built before SDN is ready to replace networking hardware in production environments
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