Open Network Featured Article

Software-defined networking (SDN) made massive in-roads in 2016, with carriers like Verizon, CenturyLink (News - Alert) and AT&T all announcing services and solutions utilizing an intelligent, software-defined approach. The next generation of networks is moving toward intelligence, autonomy and automation, and advanced network monitoring is going to play an integral role in the future of open, web-scale networks.

According to Nemertes, 24.3 percent of companies had either deployed SDN in 2016 or had plans to do so. IDC (News - Alert) predicts the SD-WAN market alone will produce $6 billion in annual revenues by 2020, driven by early adoption and a need for more cost effective, faster and more efficient networking solutions. At the heart of the SDN philosophy is automation, programmability and centralized, policy-driven management. And these features are a perfect fit for advanced network monitoring, the final component necessary to help SDN live up to its full potential.

From an open networking perspective, advanced monitoring of SDN-based networks may be aided by use of OpenFlow, an open standard enabling communications between the data plane and the management plane. When the standard is used for networking communications, network operators may derive valuable reporting data and metrics from their SDN controllers for use in monitoring. Third-party network management tools may also be used to interact with SDN controllers for advanced monitoring of network performance across an OpenFlow SDN architecture or a hybrid network.

And with SD-WAN gaining such traction in the enterprise, advanced monitoring and policy-driven management are becoming widespread. Many SD-WAN deployments are first run in a discovery/visibility mode to monitor how specific businesses are using their networks before full-scale rollout takes place. SD-WANs also gather detailed performance and traffic information for advanced monitoring and management.

While the SDN model lends itself to intelligent, autonomous monitoring, there are times when more advanced analysis like deep packet inspection is required. Network functions virtualization (NFV), the movement away from dedicated, proprietary hardware toward virtualized network services, makes the analysis of specific parts of the network intuitive.

Advanced network monitoring is a requirement for the next generation of open, web-scale networks. Technologies like SDN and NFV are inherently automated and intelligent, making centralized network monitoring and management an intuitive and uncomplicated process.