Networking needs to follow the example of computing and storage by becoming more open and, in doing so, realize the full potential that wide area Ethernet can deliver.
That's one of the messages Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)'s CTO Steve Alexander will be sharing at the upcoming Ethernet & SDN Expo in New York City, Oct 2-3, where he is a keynote speaker.
"It is time for connect, computer, and store to come together in all their glory of opening up to build a better programmable platform that people can build businesses on, that applications and services can be built on," Alexander told Light Reading in a recent interview.
To find out more about Alexander's views on the challenges and potential of the networking fraternity, see Ciena's Alexander: The Future's Open.
Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to the Ethernet & SDN Expo, a Light Reading Live event taking place Oct. 2-3 at the Javits Center in New York City. Co-located with Interop, Light Reading's Ethernet & SDN Expo will focus on how the convergence of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 with emerging carrier software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) technologies could change the whole telecom landscape for service providers. For more information, or to register, click here.
Re: Which box vendors can win from an open environment? SO will the SDN shift accelerate some of the antiproprietary developments you think?
I'm just wondering if this process is going to flush out a certain breed of vendor - flush out for the scrapheap I mean, as well as bring to the fore the companies that are able to innovate with truly open architectures with open APIs etc
I take your point competely on the optics side etc -- you can't virtulaize everythjing, though itsems we are getting close to being able to print just about everything (in 3D)....
maybe soon someone will be able t print out a transceiver? :-)
Re: Which box vendors can win from an open environment? Ray,
Even in an open networking environment, there will continue to be value in hardware and there should be hardware specialists that excel in different types of equipment. Certainly, DWDM optics is going to be taken over by COTS servers. Neither will core routing, etc.
Access networks are primed for NFV - where performance is not the key metric and products must be low cost and (relatively) high volume. I think that hardware vendors that play in the metro core and long haul networks are in a different situation. I don't think that these vendors can continue to push closed/proprietary architectures, however. That will be a big change.
Which box vendors can win from an open environment? Clearly, an open networking environment (should it ever truly prevail) is going to kill off some existing hardware-based infrastructure vendors -- but how can equipment vendors adapt to survive in an SDN/NFV environment?
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