HP Pushes Ahead on SDN Strategy with Single Control Pane

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is moving ahead with its software-defined networking (SDN) strategy with new technologies that provide a single control plane for managing infrastructure, software and application layers.

The new products really break down into three categories — the infrastructure layer, the control software layer and the application layer.

For the infrastructure layer, HP announced nine new switch models that provide OpenFlow-enabled support for the HP FlexNetwork architecture. At the control software layer, HP launched the HP Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller. And at the application layer, the company launched new HP Virtual Cloud Networks software to enable cloud providers to build automated and scalable public cloud services for the enterprise. Also, the new HP Sentinel Security software application was designed to automate network access control and intrusion prevention for enterprise campus networks.

Additionally, HP unveiled a portfolio of services as part of its SDN roadmap. Included in the new portfolio are services to design, deliver and implement on HP Virtual Application Networks. The portfolio launched with three services — HP Transformation Experience Workshop to provide insight into the transformation benefits and implications of SDN, HP Networking Provisioning Baseline Assessment Service for assessing the current network resources provisioning the time required to deploy apps, and HP SDN Proof of Concept Services that assess and report provisioning time improvements gained through HP Intelligent Management Center and HP Virtual Application Networks technologies.

All these new products and services fit into HP’s vision of “converged cloud,” a hybrid delivery model of solutions that combine private cloud, public cloud and managed/hosted cloud offerings, said Biri Singh (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of cloud services at HP.

“SDN’s really giving us from a public cloud standpoint the freedom to be able to operate a public cloud on literally tens of thousands of nodes,” Singh said, adding it also delivers a unique multi-tenant environment.

HP made the announcement just prior to the kickoff of Interop New York. In discussing the new announcements with media and analysts, Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager of HP Networking, noted she believes SDN will revolutionize the networking industry. She also took a small shot at “our biggest competitor” in trying to create differentiation between the strategies of HP and its competitors.

For the cloud, this will play a huge role going forward because end users are becoming increasingly impatient when it comes to access and spinning up new cloud instances. As Mayer noted, “In the cloud space, time is of the essence.”

“Cloud is driving software-defined networking and the paradigm that is software-defined networking,” Mayer added.

SDN is one of those technologies that is becoming a hot topic, but like cloud a few years ago, it’s a technology that is in some ways undefined. As a pure technology play, end users aren’t going to care what the technology is just as long as it works.

SDN is still largely in its infancy. The Open Networking Foundation has provided what it calls a standard definition, and according to HP, it’s the only really filling those requirements (again, another shot at Cisco). That definition, in case you’re interested: “In the architecture, the control and data plans are decoupled, network intelligence and state are logically centralized and the underlying network infrastructure is abstracted from the applications.”

This series of announcements from HP is just the beginning, Mayer promised, hinting at future SDN applications. No timeframe was given, but it would make sense to see more from the company in the new year.

According to Singh, infrastructure purchases have been down, but now there’s a growing demand again on the infrastructure side.

“SDN will be the way people network in the future. It’ll start out as potential areas of use within the network. It’s an evolution, definitely,” Mayer noted. She predicted over the next five to seven years, companies will demand they network this way, dropping legacy infrastructure in favor of the software-defined networking concept.

According to HP executives, all of this means an immediate opportunity for channel partners. With the OpenFlow switches, there’s the resell opportunity, but as the controller rolls out into the market, Mayer said there will be opportunities to use HP’s APIs for adding value.

“Our channel partners will be able to build services around an SDN-based network as well,” Mayer said.