Advantages of Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Software Defined Network

Software defined networking or SDN for short is the simplification and centralization of enterprise business network management. The most common advantages of SDN are traffic programmability, agility and the ability to create policy driven network supervision and implementing network automation. It’s greatest advantage is allowing the creation of a framework to support more data-intensive applications like big data and virtualization.

Below are some highlights of the specific advantages of SDN for the enterprise:

Content Delivery:

Controlling data traffic is one of the primary advantages of software defined networking. The ability to direct and automate data traffic makes implementing quality of services (QoS) for voice over IP (VOIP), video and audio transmissions much easier. Software defined networking provides a seamless experience for end-users streaming high quality audio and video.

Lessen Capital Expenditure:

By implementing software defined networking, enterprise businesses can easily optimize existing network devices. Existing hardware can be repurposed to follow the instructions of a SDN controller, and more cost-efficient hardware can be deployed with greater effect. For example, a “white box” switch can be made using commoditized parts already owned by a business, preventing the purchase of proprietary switches.

Centralization:

Software defined networks offer a centralized view of an organizations entire network, making it easier to streamline enterprise management and provisioning.  As VLANs become a more prominent part of physical LANs, the number of links and dependencies can easily create confusion. SDNs can speed service delivery and provide more agility for both virtual and physical network provisioning, all from a central location.

Management:

In order to accommodate big data, enterprise businesses are constantly setting up new applications and virtual machines to handle processing requests. By implementing SDN, IT teams are able to change network configurations with no effect to the network. Additionally, SDN supports the management of physical and virtual switches and network equipment from a single centralized controller, something that cannot be done using simple network management protocol (SNMP).

Fidelus Technologies, based out of New York City is a Professional and Managed Information Technology Services company focused on customer success and business efficiency . Our services provide seamless networking, data center, wireless, security and unified communications expertise for enterprise businesses.  We have a consultative life cycle approach that includes requirements gathering, assessments, solution design, planning, project management, engineering, adoption and evolution (training) services to fully support the IT needs of your organization.

If you’re looking for more information on how Fidelus can help with your current IT environment and or software defined networking, please contact us!