The networking field, which from the perspective of new innovations had been realtively dull until quite recently, is currently vibrant and exciting with new possibilities. Enter Software Defined Networking (SDN) - a new market estimated to be on a growth trajectory from just $198 million in 2012 to $2.1 billion in 2017, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets.

Many analysts and industry bloggers have naturally turned their attention to interpreting the significance of SDN. Here I wanted just to draw your attention to ten writers whom I wholeheartedly recommend you keep an eye on if you want to understand this fast-emerging new approach, by highlighting ten recent articles published in SDN Journal that you could read, all ten of them, in an intense hour...and arm yourself with information and ideas about the shape of networking to come.



Here they are:

Author: Kapil Raval
–  Raval is an experienced technology solutions consultant with nearly 20 years of experience in the telecom industry. He thinks ‘the business’ and focuses on linking business challenges to technology solutions. He currently works for HP and drives strategic solutions in the telecom vertical.

Article: Software Defined Networking – A Paradigm Shift

–  In this article Raval highlights why we have reached limits of current network technology, how Software Defined Networking will lead the next wave of innovations and its benefits to the IT industry. A must-read to start your journey toward understanding SDN, including a brief history of the OpenFlow protocol, whose early adopters included Google.

Author: Brian Gracely | @bgracely
– A 19-year technology veteran, Gracely is VP of Solutions Marketing at Virtustream. Throughout his career he has led Cisco, NetApp, EMC and now Virtustream into emerging markets and through technology transitions.

Article: What's the Killer App for Software Defined Networking?

– In this article, the ever-readable Gracely asks a basic question about SDN: what's the initial, simple to understand and broadly applicable killer-app for SDN? His precedent is server virtualization, which when it first emerged offered the ability to significantly reduce the cost of under utilized servers (rack space, network ports, power, etc.). "It was the foundation of future IT-as-a-Service evolutions (of "Private Cloud / Hybrid Cloud"), but it offered ROI of just a few months in many cases," writes Gracely. So what's the equivalent use case for SDN?

Author: Lori MacVittie | @lmacvittie
– Lori MacVittie is responsible for education and evangelism at F5 Networks. She has extensive programming experience as an application architect, as well as network and systems development and administration expertise, and was an award-winning Senior Technology Editor at Network Computing Magazine prior to joining F5. A crucial writer to follow on Twitter.

Article: F5 Application Layer SDN: Now with Extreme Programmability

– As SDN matures, its focus will continue to move up the network stack, toward the application layers. Lori MacVittie examines in this article what she terms Application Layer SDN. As networks continue to become commoditized, she contends that "it is the application layer services in an SDN that will provide organizations with the competitive advantage they need."

Authors: Jörg-Peter Elbers & Achim Autenrieth
– Jörg-Peter Elbers is VP Advanced Technology in the CTO office at ADVA Optical Networking in Munich, Germany, and is globally responsible for technology strategy, new product concepts, standardization, and research activities.
– Achim Autenrieth is Principle Research Engineer Advanced Technology in the CTO Office at ADVA Optical Networking, where he is working on the design and evaluation of multilayer networks, control plane, and SDN concepts.

Article: Using OpenFlow to Extend Software Defined Networking

– Adapting OpenFlow and extending SDN to the optical transport domain, say the authors, comprise important steps toward network virtualization, promising true platform agility and, with it, a host of long-sought-after enterprise capabilities: capacity on-demand, adaptive infrastructure and dynamic service automation, among them.

Author: Roger Strukhoff | @TauDir
– Roger Strukhoff is Executive Director of the Tau Institute, focused on global ICT research, including the growth of cloud computing.

Article: The Pivot to SDN: Enabler or Impediment?

– In light of VMware's $1-billion+ Nicira acquisition, followed quickly by Oracle's sort-of-related Xsigo acquisition, the network is suddenly again the most important thing, and SDN is what Strukhoff calls "the new star peaking through the clouds." Strukhoff wonders, though, if the SDN pivot means that potential bottlenecks impeding plans to make Internet plumbing vastly more efficient are now removed, or that on the contrary it adds a layer of complexity that will further impede plans.

To finish, here in addition are some recent news items concerning recent SDN developments, also culled from SDN Journal:

• Aryaka Gets Peach of an Account - March 2013
• F5 Networks Acquires LineRate - Feb 2013
• Open SDN Reference Architecture for Cloud Developers - Dec 2012
• VMware's Buying Nicira for $1.26 Billion - July 2012