Nokia is bolstering its SDN story with the acquisition of analytics specialist Deepfield for an undisclosed sum. (See Nokia to Acquire Deepfield.)

So what's the attraction? Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) believes Deepfield's technology can help its SDN systems make the optimum automated decisions based on an accurate analysis of what is happening in the network.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Deepfield Inc. has developed an API-driven, software-only network analytics system called Singularity that, it says, ingests and makes sense of data from "hundreds of sources" (network elements, probes, sensors, OSS tools etc) using standard protocols -- SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), DNS (Domain Name System), BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) and more -- in real time. Singularity also takes a feed from Deepfield's other key system, called Genome, that, according to the vendor, "continually maps every single Internet end-point on the global service supply chain."

Singularity then feeds that combined data into service assurance, network management and security applications. Deepfield's system is already being used by the likes of European research network GÉANT and multiple US cable operators such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable. (See GÉANT Chooses Deepfield for Network Visibility and Analytics.)

Nokia plans to integrate Deepfield's tools with its SDN systems, namely the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP) and Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP), to offer what the Finnish giant calls a "cognitive 'brain' that makes real-time, automated changes to wide area networks (WANs) and datacenter networks so they can quickly adapt to changes in application demand, flow and traffic patterns."

The move makes sense: SDN controllers are only as good as the data driving their automated actions -- the more accurate the information fed to the controllers, the more likely it is that network operators can meet their customers' needs and run more efficient networks.

Deepfield is about five years old and employs 65 staff. It has raised a little over $3 million in funding from investors such as Mercury Fund, Resonant Venture Partners and RPM Ventures, according to Crunchbase.

Check out the company's Virtuapedia profile and Testapedia profile for more information.

Find out more about Deepfield by watching this video interview recorded earlier this year with CEO Craig Labovitz:

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— Ray Le Maistre, , Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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