[AusNOG] SDN

[Mark ZZZ Smith]

>________________________________
> From: Brad McGinn <bmcginn at thiess.com.au>
>To: "ausnog at lists.ausnog.net" <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net> 
>Sent: Tuesday, 18 November 2014, 11:40
>Subject: [AusNOG] SDN
> 
>
>
> 
>Hi All,
> 
<snip> 
>Any comments welcome.

> 

So more generally, for any new technology, I think the questions to ask are:

- What problem or problems does it solve, am I suffering from those problems, and how important to me are solving those problems?

- In a commercial environment, how is the technology going to make us money or save us money? (the 'save us money' answer is also basically the answer to the first question). Knowing answers to this question is mandatory, otherwise you might be wasting the company's money on unnecessary technology.

- What are the trade-offs of the technology? All technologies have costs and benefits, the ones worth deploying are the ones where the benefits outweigh the costs.

Answers to these questions always depend on context. So I think to answer these questions about SDN, first gain an understanding of how it functions and its general costs and benefits, and then see if any of its advantages or capabilities could help you solve your problem(s) cost effectively.

One observation that I think applies to SDN.  We in this industry really like flexibility, probably because we like the idea of minimising any future constraints on what we can do. SDN provides more flexibility in being able to control packet forwarding/processing than more traditional layer 2/layer 3 processing. The drawback of flexibility is that more of it makes it easier to create complexity, and complex systems are more likely to fail and are harder to troubleshoot. IOW, just because you have more 'nerd-knobs' doesn't mean you should be looking to push them.


Regards,
Mark.

>Thanks all.
> 
>Brad 
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