Why OpenFlow Is The Next Big Thing

The networking revolution has begun, and it's going to be good for (almost) everyone

On the heels of my post about Cumulous Networks last week, I had a chance to chat with Stu Bailey, founder and CTO of Infoblox, about the future of networking, and specifically OpenFlow. Stu is bullish on OpenFlow's future and the future of white-box networking in general, so there was much agreement all around. One statement he made certainly resonated: "The economics of networking are undergoing a paradigm shift like we've never seen before." I couldn't agree more.

For those who aren't up to speed on OpenFlow and white-box networking, here's a brief primer. OpenFlow essentially separates the control plane and the data plane in a network device. Traditional network devices like switches and routers make their own decisions on where Ethernet packets should travel based on rules local to the device. Those rules may be configured manually or delivered through routing protocols, but all traffic path decisions are ultimately made within the device itself.