WHITE P APER New Style of IT: Planning for and Supporting Complex Datacenter Netw orks Am I Ready for

r SDN?
Sponsored by: HP Rob Brothers November 2013

www.idc.com

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Enterprises are innovating the way they do business by taking advantage of new technologies; virtualization, converged infrastructures, and cloud application have been on the leading edge of those initiatives. But many of the management challenges facing administrators today are derived from the physical network architecture. Today's networks depend on IP to identify and locate devices and applications. This approach works for static networks with physical devices but is extremely labor intensive for large networks. Managing such complex and dynamic environments using traditional means has become far too time consuming and expensive, especially in the areas of virtual machine (VM) connectivity, network configuration, disaster recovery, and mobility. The continuing expansion of large datacenters is outpacing the ability of administrators to efficiently manage these very large-scale networks. To simplify the task of managing large, virtualized networks, administrators must be freed from the physical infrastructure. Software-defined networks (SDNs) redefine the way we think about the network and remove the barriers to innovation by giving providers and enterprises complete programmatic control of the network. With SDN, network operations can become more agile by orchestrating network services and automatically controlling the network according to policies rather than using manual network device configurations. Organizations should look to align people and processes with these new technologies, and this is where the right services partner can add tremendous value.

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IN THIS WHITE P APER

In this white paper, IDC discusses how having a highly efficient and optimized network infrastructure will properly prepare network operations for SDNs and what role vendor services have when supporting, evolving, and transforming these complex networks. We highlight the following network service areas: What SDN means to your business and what services to utilize that can help your organization take advantage of the technology How planning for SDN today will streamline implementation tomorrow How optimizing your network will allow for better functionality today in a complex converged environment and an easier transition to SDN

 Utilizing proactive services through tools and automation to provide optimal uptime assurance How a single point of contact for all network issues (or a technical account manager) can help resolve issues quickly and efficiently even in heterogeneous environments How an efficient network scheme today can free up staff to focus on advancing the workflow processes that heavily rely upon these networks How a single pane of glass for monitoring and error detection can simplify the support processes when issues do arise in these complex networks We point out how utilizing these services properly can take the burden off your internal staff, allowing them to focus on business innovation, and we also show how HP services can help with satisfying some, if not all, of these needs.

SITUATION OVER VIEW

This section outlines the state of the market for SDN initiatives and the typical challenges that can arise when planning for, implementing, and supporting complex and interconnected environments. IDC shows what can be done to meet and exceed expectations for the business and maximize performance across the network landscape.

Market Update: Software-Defined Networking

It's important to understand that SDN is a means to an end rather than an end or a solution in its own right. It is essentially an architectural model that can result in outcomes such as network virtualization and extensive network programmability. Driven initially by the needs of Web giants and large cloud service providers as evidenced by the companies that sit on the board of directors at the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) SDN was devised to ensure that the network became more pliant and responsive to virtualized application environments within the larger context of cloud computing. The SDN "stack" features clear layers of abstraction that provide southbound and northbound interfaces for enhanced management and programmability that extend all the way (up and down) from business-critical applications to the network infrastructure. A central principle of SDN, as advanced by the ONF and by the academic progenitors of SDN at universities such as Stanford, has been a decoupling (or separation) of the network control plane from the data-forwarding plane. Previously, the control plane and the data plane resided within the same physical switch, but SDN posits a centralized, external software-based controller (or controller cluster), running on industry-standard hardware, that interfaces and programs flow tables on switches. Initially, the ONF advanced OpenFlow was the open, programmatic interface between the controller and the switch (from the control plane to the data plane), but other mechanisms can be used and are being positioned to differentiate in this increasingly competitive space with a large, diverse vendor community.

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Layers of SDN
The aforementioned SDN "stack" comprises four distinct layers and includes three tiers of abstraction. Figure 1 illustrates the various layers of the network with examples and benefits associated with each layer. At the bottom of the SDN stack is the physical network hardware (switches and routers), which can be deployed as a fabric underlying a virtualized overlay or an OpenFlow controller or a combination of the two. Above the physical network is the layer represented by virtualization and control, encompassing SDN controllers, protocol gateways, and technologies that facilitate overlay networks. Above that are SDN applications, which also include network and security services (increasingly virtualized) that ensure application delivery. The top layer of the SDN stack features cloud orchestration and management platforms such as OpenStack, CloudStack, and VMware's vCloud Director.

FIGURE 1
Layers of a Software-Defined Network

Layer
Orchestration, cloud management

Examples
OpenStack, cloud/REST APIs, CloudStack, vCloud Director Layer 47 services, traffic engineering, network analytics, firewall/security apps OpenFlow/SDN controllers, vSwitches, overlay networks, tunneling protocols (VXLAN, NVGRE, STT), etc.

Benefits
Automation, provisioning, and orchestration

SDN apps, network services

Personalization, monetization, application intelligence, and responsiveness Advancements in routing controls/resource utilization, network flexibility and agility, and network management

Virtualization/ control

Network infrastructure

Vendor-specific OS for network devices (e.g., Cisco IOS) can be Scalability, operational simplicity, deployed as a fabric, OpenFlow and low latency tables reside here

Source: IDC, 2013

SDN Benefits and the Services That Will Unlock Those Benefits

Forward-looking service providers, telcos, and other companies with large complex networks will be utilizing SDN to help reduce costs and create new, network-based services. As a result of the decoupling of network control functions from the forwarding plane, service innovation will no longer be constrained by the slower development pace of networking hardware. They anticipate that by exposing network capabilities through APIs, they will encourage an increasingly rich ecosystem of third-party application developers to build compelling apps. Slicing the network into virtual segments that match

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the needs of specific applications, which will help them differentiate traffic flows in innovative, cost-effective, and monetizable ways, will be no easy feat. Accomplishing this will require teaming up with an organization that has the ability to help evaluate an existing infrastructure and optimize and help plan for the utilization of SDN. While software-defined networks can help enterprises attain the desired flexibility and agility to compete, they can also present significant challenges to plan, implement, manage, and support on an ongoing basis. As business units insist on advanced capabilities from the IT landscape, maximizing performance and availability while reducing overall costs presents an ongoing struggle for most CIOs and IT managers. As a result, many IT organizations look to their vendors to assist with implementing these new technologies to help mitigate issues with ongoing operations and to meet servicelevel agreements (SLAs) to both internal and external customers. Vendors with a robust portfolio of extensive service deliverables and deep domain expertise can help service providers, telcos, and enterprises identify how, where, and when to implement SDN. The following are steps organizations can take to fully prepare for SDN: Network strategy and alignment with the business. What is SDN, and what is its value to your datacenter? How will it improve your business and put your enterprise in a better position to compete? SDN planning and design network architecting for the future of your business. These technologies are complex, and working with a company that has deep domain expertise and real-world experience can help simplify this new method of networking. Network performance evaluation. How is your network performing now, and what strategies can you implement today that will help streamline SDN implementation tomorrow? Infrastructure and network support. Look for innovative support offerings such as proactive support and monitoring services that allow your staff to focus on driving the business forward as opposed to troubleshooting issues. Other aspects of support that will add high value to your organization include: Support of heterogeneous environments A single point of contact or technical account manager (TAM) who can help escalate issues and will have a deep understanding of your environment Direct access to high-end engineers for faster issue resolution

After SDN is implemented, vendors should have sophisticated support packages to identify potential issues before they affect mission-critical systems so that IT organizations can avoid prolonged break-fix cycles. As enterprises look to integrate new technologies such as SDN into complex IT environments, proactive and preventive support capabilities will become baseline requirements for service providers especially in enterprise software. Support packages should include both remote monitoring capabilities and automated tools and utilities, specifically designed to isolate potential issues and alert customers before any downtime occurs. Support deliverables should also feature the capability to deliver fixes on an automated basis as long as the customer has granted access to the provider for that functionality.

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A services organization should combine an understanding of your business needs with extensive networking and virtualization expertise to provide clear, actionable recommendations. The vendors should work with you to create a plan for a networking infrastructure that helps you reduce costs, improve service, mitigate risk, and position your business for future flexibility. Through effective planning, they can help you take advantage of networking technologies and approaches to meet current requirements and prepare your network to respond to future demands. To that end, HP has created a suite of offerings that can help your organization meet and exceed its networking goals.

HP SERVICES: FE ATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY FOR NAVIG ATING AND ACHIEVING THE BENEFITS OF SDN
As companies have moved to virtualized and converged technologies to improve cloud applications and business process, manual configuration of systems and networks through command-line interface (CLI) coding has proven to be error prone as well as time and resource intensive. Working with the right service provider can help direct your business to the right strategies and solutions to help streamline these processes. HP has been at the forefront of SDN innovation; it has taken what it has learned from the complexities of virtualized environments to put together a set of solutions to help organizations navigate the labyrinth of SDN. The HP Services portfolio features and the broad range of SDN offerings are presented in Figure 2.

FIGURE 2
HP's Network Services Portfolio

HP Software-defined Network Services

Simplify, transform and evolve
Management

SDN Architecture

Application

Cloud-ready Networking Services

Network Infrastructure Optimization Services

Connectivity Transformation Experience Workshop SDN Focus

SDN Baseline Discovery

SDN Design, Implement Services

Control

Infrastructure

Support Services
Source: HP, 2013

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 Strategize and assess. What can SDN do for my business? Is it feasible with my existing environment? These will be the most important questions companies will ask themselves, and HP can help provide answers with: Transformation experience workshop for SDN. HP can help your company determine what an SDN transformation can do for your infrastructure. SDN baseline discovery. HP can help determine what your existing environment is capable of achieving. Virtual appliance network proof of concept. HP can test the capabilities of your existing environment to determine the potential value of SDN.

SDN architecture and implementation. With deep domain expertise in server virtualization and networks, HP is able to offer detailed network architecture and implementation for your new SDN environment. Network cloud optimization services. To prepare your environment for SDN, HP offers networking services that will help optimize your networks today to more easily take advantage of SDN tomorrow. IDC believes that enterprises will continue to add new technologies to their IT infrastructure to quickly adapt to changing market dynamics. This new style of IT, which includes technologies such as virtualization, software-defined networks, and cloud-based environments, increases the complexity associated with managing and supporting IT across the enterprise. HP's Support Services portfolio represents a strong effort by the company to simplify and streamline the customer-facing aspects of its offerings and enhance key aspects of the customer experience. HP's offerings provide customers with a broad range of support services that will help embrace these new technologies and drive their businesses forward. These advanced offerings, based on making the experience more personalized and more proactive, are shown in Figure 3.

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FIGURE 3
The HP Support Services Portfolio

Comprehensive and Progressive Support Services

Your premier support partner, from the datacenter to the branch or campus
Datacenter Care
Personalized agreement to better operate and evolve IT environment

Proactive Care
Optimize Availability and Performance

"Customize my support to my unique needs, help me deploy, operate and evolve" "Fix my network before it breaks. Keep my network devices up to date. Give me direct access to experts"

Foundation Care
HP takes the call when you have a problem with your HP network
"Help me identify issues with my HP network environment and give me rapid access to advanced technical expertise"

HP Warranty
Make sure your HP Networking equipment is operating according to specifications

Lifecycle Event Services Give me access to expertise to complement my team when and where I need it
Source: HP, 2013

HP Datacenter Care
HP Datacenter Care is a tailored support agreement enabled by proprietary HP tools and analytics for customers that are utilizing advanced infrastructure solutions and want a unique support experience. The service utilizes much of IDC's four-pillar approach to supporting a customer's datacenter (refer back to Figure 1). Deliverables are individually sized and priced depending on specific needs and are not based on per-device pricing, and additional devices can be added over time. This service package offers: Enhanced call handling, which provides a customer with access to the Mission Critical Solution Center for all devices covered A single point of accountability and rapid access to technical specialists for incidents Proactive services that help identify issues before they happen, whether identifying a part that may fail or updating and patching a network device to keep it optimized for uptime assurance Personalized approach to service with an assigned account team responsible for service excellence Ability to add functions to the service as "building blocks" to address specific solution areas
HP tools and analytics are for customers that are utilizing advanced infrastructure solutions and want a unique support experience.

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Recommended for FlexBranch, FlexCampus

Recommended for FlexCampus, FlexFabric

Customized support for a complex, heterogeneous network

HP Proactive Care
HP Proactive Care represents a higher-value support service leveraging new product technology and infrastructure investments designed to achieve dynamic proactive support. HP Proactive Care builds upon the HP Foundation Care base to provide more value-added features to customers facing the challenge of managing converged, virtualized, software-defined networks and cloud-based environments. The program leverages: Remote support automation tools, such as HP's ProActive Insight Architecture "Direct to Expert" support, bypassing traditional level one support processes to gain quick access to HP technology experts and single-point-of-contact focus throughout the resolution process Proactive advice and consultation on firmware and software management

HP Foundation Care
HP Foundation Care is a portfolio of reactive hardware and software services with different levels of support and hardware/software balancing options. HP Foundation Care now has four major service enhancements as follows: Reactive hardware and software support services offer a wide range of response times, coverage windows, and length-of-term options. HP Collaborative Support is a new offering that includes reactive hardware support plus basic software diagnosis support and third-party collaboration. Software support includes reactive complex software support and software updates. HP Foundation Care with HP Collaborative Support is immediately available from both HP and HP's Authorized ServiceOne Support Partners. HP Foundation Care extends standard warranties for HP products and provides hardware and software support options above and beyond HP's current offering. It can be obtained from HP directly or from authorized partners. Support is available in multiple response levels to address the specific needs of customers.

Tools and Automation

HP Insight Online. Anytime, anywhere support, including: Personalized Dashboard. This feature integrates support and product information into a "single pane of glass" view and allows the sharing of configuration information with other users in the organization and/or HP Authorized Resellers for recommendations and advice. Service Events. This feature provides online monitoring and management of devices using HP Insight Remote Support 7.0. Users can view all key event information, such as severity, problem description, date and time generated, status, and related support case ID.

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Contracts and Warranties. This feature allows users to track warranty status by device and by contract. Users can see what contracts are in force along with associated access rights and expiration dates. Additional privileges are possible, such as access to certain support content or to patches or software updates.

Intelligent Management Center (IMC). HP Intelligent Management Center is a unified, single-point network management solution that provides visibility across entire networks, enabling complete management of resources, services, and users. Unifying wired, wireless, and user management leads to increased performance, enhanced security, and reduced infrastructure complexity and costs. HP IMC is a great tool to start enterprises on the road to an SDN environment. These concise, consolidated offerings are to help customers choose which level of support best suits their needs. IDC recommends that enterprises work with their support services representative to choose the proper support package for their particular environment.

FUTURE OUTLOOK
With the IT environments increasing in complexity, HP Technology Services is continuing to evolve its portfolio to meet the needs and demands of enterprises of all sizes. IDC foresees that SDN technologies will be complex at first, not unlike server virtualization. Hence utilizing a vendor to help with the planning and implementation will enable the enterprise to take advantage of the capabilities more rapidly. IDC has seen situations in datacenter environments where virtualization has been implemented poorly and managed ineffectively, costing enterprises valuable time and money. IDC recommends partnering with the right services vendor to help implement not only SDN but also many other complex solutions.

CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNI TIES
These new network architectures are technically very hard to grasp, and education on the benefits of moving to a network that is more virtualized will pose a hurdle for many vendors. The companies that do understand the technology and begin to prepare for it will be in a much better position to enable faster and better business processes. These new technologies enable the provisioning of workloads at a more rapid pace while keeping security intact. Customers should consider purveyors of SDN solutions that have adopted programs around the business as well as the operational impact of advanced networking technologies. This would help reduce potential political friction associated with changes to the existing network operation and provide detailed information around the benefits of these changes. Furthermore, education and promotion of use cases will be essential to helping propagate SDN across key vertical markets. The focus on deployments and use cases will also create broader enthusiasm for and adoption of SDN solutions.

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Nonetheless, customers interested in SDN will have to ensure that they have or develop the right mix of skills to evaluate, select, deploy, manage, and support SDN, either on their own or in conjunction with a company such as HP. There is no question that SDN will play a key role in collapsing the IT silos that exist in many network operations. In the final analysis, the alignment of networks with applications will result in closer alignment of the teams that run them.

CONCLUSION
Software-defined networking is an emerging, innovative architectural model that is capable of delivering network virtualization and network programmability to datacenter and enterprise networks. SDN decouples the control plane from the data-forwarding plane, creating a new layer of abstraction in networking that provides a foundation for greater management flexibility and lower operational costs. SDN has rapidly caught the attention of cloud service providers and enterprise IT departments, especially in cases where virtualized and cloud-oriented applications require a scale of agility and flexibility that traditional networks typically cannot provide. Considering the provisioning demands associated with these types of new applications, the network has been under increasing pressure to adapt and change accordingly. In enabling network virtualization and abstracting and decoupling the application-oriented network logic and control policies from the underlying network hardware, SDN provides a networking model that offers dynamism and programmability that are aligned with other aspects of datacenter virtualization compute and storage while delivering unprecedented network visibility and service velocity for IT teams. Hence working with a partner such as HP that can help with the assessment, planning, implementation, support, and management of SDN will be key to a successful deployment.

Copyright Notice
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