Best Software Defined Networking (SDN) Tools

The main objective of an SDN is to make networks more agile and flexible and to improve network control so that enterprises, as well as service providers, can quickly respond to changing business requirements. Its main goal is to eliminate technology and management silos, allowing organizations to orchestrate services from end to end. With software-defined networking, a lot of step-by-step manual provisioning errors and other issues are reduced, resulting in significantly improved service provisioning compared to old networking approaches.

The three layers of an SDN are made up of:

1. Application layer: The application layer consists of typical network applications or functions such as load balancing, intrusion detection systems, or firewalls.
2. Control layer: This layer resides on a server and acts as the “brain” of an SDN; It manages both the policies and flow of traffic throughout the network.
3. Infrastructure layer: The infrastructure layer is made up of the physical switches in the network.

SDN is important because it provides organizations with increased control, greater speed and flexibility, a customizable network infrastructure, and most importantly, robust security. With an SDN, developers can execute greater control levels over the flow of network traffic by simply programming an open software-based controller. It also lets network administrators have more flexibility when choosing networking equipment, giving them the choice to select a single protocol to use with any number of hardware devices via a central controller.

SDN is also important because it helps organizations prioritize applications that require more availability and also optimize the flow of data throughout a network. Moreover, an SDN provides complete visibility into an entire network, thus giving companies a holistic overview of security threats.

SDN is worthwhile for organizations for the many advantages it has to offer that traditional networking can’t provide.

The different models of SDN include:

1. Open SDN: To control the behavior of physical or virtual switches at the data plane level, network admins often use a protocol such as OpenFlow.
2. Hybrid SDN: This type of SDN model involves a combination of SDN with traditional networking protocols in order to support different types of functions on a network. While traditional or standard networks direct some traffic, SDNs manage other traffic to allow network administrators to gradually introduce SDN networks to legacy environments.
3. SDN by APIs: Using this model, application programming interfaces are able to control how data is transported through a network on individual devices.
4. SDN overlay: With the SDN overlay model, a virtual network runs on top of existing hardware infrastructure, creating dynamic tunnels that are used to connect to different on-premise and remote data centers. This type of software-defined networking allows a virtual network to allocate bandwidth over multiple channels but also allows you to assign specific devices to channels without ever touching the physical network.

When considering a software-defined network option, you should consider looking for some of these considerably valuable features:

• Directly manageable
• Centrally managed
• Agility
• Programmatically configured
• Vendor-neutral
• Granular security
• Lowered operating costs
• Content delivery

Among some of the most popular benefits of software-defined networking are the following:

• Directly programmable: SDNs are directly programmable because the control layer is decoupled from the infrastructure layer and from forwarding functions.
• Centralized management: With an SDN, you can maintain a global view of your organization’s network, promoting central intelligence and allowing you to centralize management.
• Agility and flexibility: SDNs allow administrators to dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow.
• Ease of configuration and management: With an SDN, network admins can manage, configure, and secure network resources easily and quickly by using dynamic, automated SDN programs which they are able to write themselves.
• Open standards-based: SDNs can simplify network design and operation when implemented through open standards because instructions do not have to be provided by multiple, vendor-specific protocols and devices.
• Robust security: A software-defined network helps separate zones for devices, offering different levels of security so that devices do not become compromised or cause damage to the rest of a network.
• Allows data to move easily: When applications or services involve the cloud, SDNs help them function better by helping data move between distributed locations easily, which is critical for applications in the cloud.
• Supports moving workloads: With SDN, you can quickly move workloads around a network. A virtual network infrastructure can be used to shift workloads as necessary - from private to public cloud infrastructures - helping to make new customer services instantly available.
• Flexibility and scalability: A software-defined network makes it possible for admins to either remove or add virtual machines, regardless of whether or not the machines are in the cloud or on-premise, allowing any network to flex or scale as needed.