NTT Shares Critical SDN Lessons

As one of the first companies to deploy software-defined networks to connect its data centers, NTT is also one of the first to learn critical lessons about that process.

One of those is that it's not enough to deliver cloud services via this new infrastructure -- customers expect even legacy data centers to be integrated into the SDN and automated as well, says Doug Junkins, CTO of NTT America Inc.

Junkins is one of the speakers at tomorrow's The New IP event in San Jose, Calif., where he'll be sharing real-world experiences with virtualization. Through its Virtela acquisition, NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) has also been early to market with NFV-enabled networking services. (See Ethernet Expo 2012: SDN Is Nothing New at NTT, NTT Reaping Opex Rewards of SDN and NTT Launches NFV-Based Cloud Services.)

In an email interview with Light Reading, Junkins offers a preview of some of the core issues to be discussed on Thursday.

NTT pushed forward with internally developed SDN ahead of much of the market because it wanted to speed deployment of cloud services and automate that process for its global enterprise customers. Those customers are now enjoying the benefits of the automation the carrier is able to provide via its deployment of SDN-enabled networks, including more rapid provisioning of cloud services and "single pane-of-glass management of their complete enterprise solution," Junkins notes.

The next important step is "integration of legacy data center services, which are still manually provisioned," he says, adding, "We are now focusing on a more data center-wide SDN initiative that will incorporate legacy services as well as new cloud-based solutions."

That data center-wide SDN network will integrate all of NTT's "existing cloud, managed hosting and colocation services, as well as on-demand bare-metal and hosted private cloud services," Junkins says. "This will allow our customers to rapidly provision and augment resources for complex architectures to support mission critical applications."

Junkins' presentation will be just one of several up-close views of how telecom is evolving the New IP, including presentations from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)'s Bikash Koley and a lively panel discussing the value of open source that will include divergent views from the likes of Colt Technology Services Group Ltd 's Nicolas Fischbach and Orange (NYSE: FTE) Silicon Valley's Christos Kolias. (See Colt: Cautious on Open Source and Orange Sees Open Source as Vital to NFV.)

It's not too late to join us at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel -- you can find registration information here. Hope to see you in sunny San Jose.

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading