Ask someone, or search for, definitions from the Open Network and you will get various answers. That is one of the “clear” terms that everyone understands; but when you dig, everyone understands differently.
The narrowest definition will focus on Software Defined Networks and solutions enabled by OpenFlow. But is that all there is?
Other definitions will focus on interoperability and the ability to replace one component with another on your platform. But anyone who has worked in the integration of solutions even for a while understands that the reality of interoperability and component replacement is far from aspiration.
Here at NetData, we have a much more holistic and inclusive definition: Open Networking is the way you build and manage high-performance, high-quality, and high-value computing systems in the 21st century.
At NetData, we believe that Open Network is a set of concepts, practices and tools for the realization and management of very high-performance, high-quality and high-value computing systems. At this time, Open Networking is activated by:
Open Source Software, Open Network Devices, Open Compute Hardware, Software-Made Networks. Network Function Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Automation, Agile Methods & Processes.
That is a much broader definition of Open Networking than the others, but it’s the only definition that does not create more solution silos or bend the results of solutions to keyword trends or one or more competing technologies. A comprehensive and inclusive definition of Open Network is needed and provides the best results.
These technologies represent the transition from hardware-based, function-specific and proprietary network and computational components to a combination of more general and simpler hardware and migration of the significance of functionality to software. To get rid of the famous comments Marc Andressen, you can say that “Software eats the network”.
