Taking a look back at ONF’s SDN predictions for 2015 and what we expect in the new year.
You may recall that in October, we announced our SDN predictions for 2016. But how did our predictions for 2015 stack up against reality? I recently contributed a piece to Network Computing addressing my predictions for next year as well as revisiting those from 2015. Below is an excerpt from the article.
At the end of each year, the leadership of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) develops a list of our software-defined networking (SDN) predictions for the next 12 months. These predictions often play directly into our organization’s roadmap for the new year.
I shared our predictions for 2015 with Network Computing readers at the end of 2014, including our prediction that open source software would become the new norm for network standards. Based on the great progress made this year, including our contributions with the launch of OpenSourceSDN.org and its projects, this prediction is bearing out.
We also suggested that in 2015 network operators would demand open SDN, not just vendor-supplied SDN, and new OpenFlow products would make it the default southbound choice. The conversation regarding open versus proprietary continues, but operators are increasingly becoming aware of the benefits of leveraging open SDN solutions for their organizations and deploying open SDN wherever possible. Also, a number of new OpenFlow products were launched this year, and the southbound protocol is increasing in use, often embedded.
Additionally, we predicted that skills training would emerge in 2015 as the biggest SDN growth area. Many vendor-specific training programs are available, and ONF launched the industry’s first vendor-neutral skills certification program. SDN skills training will grow significantly in availability and importance in the new year.
Read the full article at Network Computing for more, including ONF’s 2016 SDN predictions.
- Dan Pitt, Executive Director
