Executive SummaryServer virtualization and cloud computing are changing the face of enterprise
computing today. Virtualization enables more efficient use of IT resources and greater
levels of IT agility and control. Cloud extends these benefits, allowing IT organizations
to reduce their infrastructure complexity, ease staff workload, and more rapidly scale
compute resources. Together, these technologies enable organizations to better meet organizational demand and provide greater agility for the enterprise
Unfortunately, most current network technologies were not developed with the needs of virtualization and cloud computing in mind, and as a result, the network can become a bottleneck to cloud and virtualization deployments. Static topologies require manual intervention to deploy and migrate virtual machines (VMs), which adds cost and burden to IT and hinders the organization's ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment.
OpenFlow is an open source networking architecture that is supported and promoted by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and designed to address these shortcomings. An extension of Ethernet, OpenFlow separates the data path and control path, with all networking logic and policies handled by a separate controller. This introduces a new layer of abstraction in networking, analogous to server virtualization, and enables the network to act as a single fabric.
With OpenFlow, the network acts as one "big switch." All logic occurs in software and can be changed as application and network requirements change, allowing for instant and automatic propagation of new policies throughout the network, simplification of network management, and dynamic partitioning of the network to easily handle multitenant environments or traffic segmentation needs as one would using VLANs.
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