Wellll... I'm not sure that's what I meant. After all, OpenFlow started as a very specific solution to a problem: Researchers wanting to experiment with new types of network control.
> I'm not clear what problems it solves for enterprise and network operator customers.
That's closer to what I meant. On the vendor side, there's a lot of excitement for OpenFlow but few concrete plans, AFAIK.
But the interest doesn't seem to be defensive. That is, I don't think vendors are investigating OpenFlow because they're afraid of being left behind. They think there's some gold here worth mining.
you're saying it's a solution looking for a problem.
I'm not sure I completely agree with that. It can be a useful tool for conducting large scale experiments on research networks like GENI, Internet2 or their equivalents in Europe and Asia. I'm not clear what problems it solves for enterprise and network operator customers. And off the top of my head, I can't see a way to use it to address any of biggest architectural problems I see with the Internet.
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