To be sure, however, not every network needs OpenFlow or needs to rip and replace the traditional network infrastructure with it. Big Switch’s Guis said customers can implement OpenFlow in one part of their network and gradually transition over to it as needed. "They can look at this as a progressive implementation and leverage their existing infrastructure," she said.
While arguing that OpenFlow is clearly viable, Ferro admits typical enterprises might be reluctant to jump into OpenFlow at this early stage. Asked what types of customers would not need OpenFlow, he answered, "anybody who’s in an enterprise or can’t afford to take a risk or can’t see a way to take a risk."
But large networks where scalability is essential, like those of service providers, are strong candidates for OpenFlow, said Nick McKeown, a Stanford researcher and co-founder of the Software Defined Networking movement. He is also a co-founder and director of Nicira, which offers a Network Virtualization Platform that uses OpenFlow. When Nicira emerged from stealth mode in February, it announced it had already signed up cloud and network service providers and other enterprises as customers, including Rackspace, AT&T and eBay.
McKeown is going to participate in another Open Networking Summit beginning April 16 in Santa Clara, Calif. While the summit last fall at Stanford was to be the first of an annual series, strong demand for information about OpenFlow prompted organizers to move the event up by six months. McKeown expects presenters at next month’s summit to provide more examples of how OpenFlow-based SDN is working in real live production environments.
"One thing is for sure," he said. "The industry is about to change in quite a dramatic way."
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