Open Network Featured Article

For some time now, there have been two major operations in the field of open networking: the ON (News - Alert).Lab group and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). It's certainly been helpful to have that much development going on in the field, but it hasn't come without some costs. Now, there's about to be a lot more unity in the field, as the ONF and ON.Lab groups are about to formally merge later this year.

To that end, the ONF announced a new board of directors, specifically built to include both ONF and ON.Lab interests in a fashion that makes sure everyone has a place at the table, so to speak. One member at large is elected by ONF membership, while two project members come from two of the biggest open source projects around: the Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) and the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) groups.

Having these people in place allows complete representation from not only the leading network operators, but also the groups who created software defined networking (SDN) in the first place. That makes for a wider view, and provides for a smoother transition in going from what amounts to two groups into just one. The merger between the two, meanwhile, is expected to be complete before the third quarter of 2017 even starts.

IHS Markit's senior research director and carrier networks advisor Michael Howard (News - Alert) commented “The new ONF board assembles an impressive group of recognized industry luminaries. Our recent research shows that more than 70 percent of operators worldwide are planning to deploy CORD in their central offices, with 30 percent by the end of 2017 and an additional 40 percent in 2018 or later. Given this traction, I'm not surprised by the caliber of tier 1 operators represented on the board."

While it's nice, in a way, to have two major open networking operations working in the field to spur some competition between the two, there's one big problem that may be addressed here: independent concurrent development. If the two shops are working on the same projects at the same time, with neither actually knowing about it, that's a lot of time and effort—and resources—that's gone to waste. With some more coordination between the two groups, the risk of unnecessary redundancy—and there really is such a thing as necessary redundancy—falls off dramatically.

The merger of ONF and ON.Lab should have a positive effect, as two powerhouse operations in open networking turn mutually toward the future and put all effort and resources behind key pushes. It will be exciting to see what the groups develop together, and we'll see that start up in just a few months.