Europe Embraces SDN at the First SDN & OpenFlow® World Congress
This year, the Open Networking Foundation had the honour to co-host Europe’s first SDN & OpenFlow® World Congress, where around 350 delegates (150 representing operators) attended to discuss and hear the developments and deployments of SDN for carriers, enterprises, and large data centers. This energy-filled event offered attendees the opportunity to hear first hand from industry leaders on how to implement and build new network applications using SDN and OpenFlow, as well as the commercial opportunities received from implementing these innovative technologies. In addition, a number of companies, most of them ONF members, showed product demonstrations of OpenFlow.
I was pleased to see such a large amount of participation from our member companies in the technical sessions, keynotes, and panels and in the workshop ONF put on. Our member companies provided positive insight on next generation networking tools that will impact network architecture and integration of applications. I was also extremely pleased to see new Board Member Goldman Sachs share thoughts on the potential of SDN from an enterprise perspective. As we continue to grow as an organization, I am excited to see more and more participation from enterprises, as they discover the opportunities of SDN for their network infrastructure.
ONF also hosted a meetup for current and prospective members that was a real mob scene; I think we had over 175 people attend. I introduced our many Board representatives and gave a short overview of ONF. We were treated to some fine local beer on tap (from a brewery across the street) and good eats. The spirit of the ONF and SDN community flowed throughout.
Overall, this was another positive event that validated my belief that SDN is growing, driving innovation in the network, and leading to more commercialization of OpenFlow. As we look forward to 2013’s event, let’s relive some of the positive moments at this year’s SDN & OpenFlow® World Congress. Here are some key highlights from this year's event:
Keynote speaker Jim Wanderer, director of engineering and platforms networking at Google and ONF Board alternate, presenting his session titled: Remaking the Network: The OpenFlow® Reality
Executive Director Dan Pitt of the Open Networking Foundation delivering his keynote presentation
Stu Elby, vice president, corporate technology, & chief technologist, digital media services, Verizon, and ONF Board member, discussing the carrier vision of SDN
Axel Clauberg, vice president, IP architecture & design, Deutsche Telekom, and ONF Board member, discussing the opportunities and challenges of SDN for carriers
Positive discussions from executives (l. to r.) Dominique Delisle (Orange), Justin Dustzadeh (Huawei), Stu Elby (Verizon), and Axel Clauberg (Deutsche Telekom) on SDN for carriers.
What were some of your key takways from this year’s event?
-Dan Pitt, Executive Director
