SDN Shift Under Way

Software-defined networking is on more companies' radars, but remains a couple of years from becoming a mainstream technology strategy, according to a recent report.

Enterprise Strategy Group's "The Evolving State of the Network," which drew upon a survey of more than 300 IT professionals responsible for evaluating, purchasing and managing networking technologies, found that two-thirds of enterprises and midsize companies polled are committed to SDN as a long-term strategy.

Where they are in that commitment varies greatly, however. The biggest chunk -- 39 percent -- is in the planning and evaluation stage, while 27 percent have actually begun implementations. Another 24 percent say they're interested but have no SDN initiatives underway, while just 10 percent either have no interest or are not familiar enough with SDN to have a position.

That 90 percent of respondents are at least interested in SDN, which promises to make networks more flexible and agile by separating the function of traffic control from network hardware, is a strong indicator that the technology is about to arrive in a big way.

Read the rest of the article on Network Computing.