Adara Claims SDN First

Adara Networks may be a small company in the software-defined networking (SDN) world, but it's ready to take on the comms giants that are basking in the glory of the newly-formed OpenDaylight Project. Monday this week saw the formation of OpenDaylight, an open-source SDN development initiative backed by a host of major names. (See OpenDaylight SDN Group Breaks Cover.) Among OpenDaylight's founding members are Cisco Systems Inc. and Big Switch Networks, both of which have contributed SDN controller code into the collective pot. But ahead of the Open Networking Summit in Santa Clara, Calif. next week, Adara has announced a plan to release what it claims is "the only production quality open source [SDN] controller" in the industry. (See Adara to Release Open-Source SDN Controller.) Adara says that current SDN controllers are either low quality "free-ware" tools or "for-purchase" elements that have been "created for highly proprietary platforms as a way to lift declining sales of legacy infrastructure products." Both of these are "contrary to the intent of SDN," posits the vendor. By contrast, Adara claims its free controller, which is designed for use in any size or type of network, is open source, high performance, scalable, secure and fault tolerant. "No one should have to pay for a production quality open source SDN controller," states the company in its official announcement. All of which sounds too good to be true. But for those at the summit, it might be worth checking out Adara, which has a track record in Tier 1 operator engagement, having teamed up with Verizon Communications Inc. for the SDN innovation project it announced a year ago. (See Why Verizon Is Keen on OpenFlow.) Adara's not just bragging about its open-source controller at the summit, though: It'll also be showing off how it extends SDN capabilities to Android devices and talking about its single SDN management platform. (See Adara Takes SDN to Android Devices and Adara Intros SDN Management Tool.) It'll be hard to get away from SDN during the week of April 15: Not only is the Open Networking Summit taking place on the U.S. west coast, but European service providers and technology players will be crawling all over the topic at Ethernet Europe 2013 in Frankfurt. (See SDN Heads for Ethernet Europe and SDN: The Road to Customized Services.) — Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading