ONF rounds out leadership with the addition of a Principal System Architect.
We believe that open-source software offers inherent advantages to the mainstream adoption of open SDN, such as vendor neutral standards, future interoperability and an adoption starting point. For many, the development of software from start to finish is too time consuming, too costly, and simply not realistic. Rather than jumping into a task that they’re not prepared for, or holding off on SDN altogether, open-source software gives companies a base foundation of components that do not require vendor differentiation to leverage for their own needs. After all, why should companies have to reinvent the wheel?
ONF has been committed to open source for quite some time, with some very notable efforts having taken place in 2014. We held a competition to identify the best OpenFlow® Driver and selected a winner. We launched SampleTap, a network tapping application that demonstrated use of OpenFlow-based SDN beyond the “plumbing” of the network. We completed our SPRING-OPEN project, developing an open-source segment-routing prototype that was built on Dell’s Open Networking switches and ON.Lab’s ONOS controller.
We are continuing to focus on open source with the announcement of a new project to build upon the OpenFlow® Configuration and Management Protocol (OF-CONFIG) to support Open vSwitch (OVS). In order to further our efforts in open-source software for SDN, we’ve brought on a new Principal System Architect. Formerly the project lead of SPRING-OPEN, Saurav Das brings a strong background in SDN architecture and software development to the position, and we’re thrilled that he’s joining the team.
Saurav’s background in SDN can be traced back to his doctoral research at Stanford University. Under the direction of Professor Nick McKeown (a member of the ONF Board of Directors), he was part of the research group at Stanford that gave birth to SDN as we know it. His work developed a converged IP/MPLS/Optical WAN, architecturally founded on SDN and OpenFlow. Post-graduation, he worked as part of the engineering team at Big Switch Networks, investigating SDN platform scalability in large data center networks. Saurav holds a master’s degree from the University of Arizona and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
We’re looking forward to working with Saurav, and I’m excited about the contributions he will make to our open-source software efforts. Welcome to the team, Saurav!
- Dan Pitt, Executive Director
