What's your opinion on Nicira and network virtualization?

Nicira came out of stealth mode and has announced their new Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) and Distributed Virtual Network Infrastructure (DVNI). We've seen some player in "virtualized" networking services before (Inkranetworks a few years ago) and there are still some tackling this space (Vyatta). Nicira and a few others (e.g., BigSwitch) are betting heavily on OpenFlow, which is now part of the Open Networking Foundation.

So is the industry ready for network virtualization? Big networking gear companies have yet embraced OpenFlow and SDN (Software Defined Networking) with open arms, which is no surprise.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Topics

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Network Virtualization

Networking

Openflow

Sdn

Technology

Virtualization

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Robert Keahey

asked on Feb. 6, 2012

Recommended by:
kevin cloinger

Andrew Baker

Director, Service Operations, SWN Communications Inc.

Posted on Feb. 8, 2012

Recommended by:
kevin cloinger

Hi Robert: This looks very intriguing. I have to read up on it some more, though...

I'll be back to answer this when I have had a chance to review in more depth.

Robert Keahey Replied on Feb. 8, 2012

Yep - this one could be interesting. The whole software defined networking area is really heating up with Nicira and BigSwitch making some noise. Nicira is interesting in the amount of brain trust they have in place and the backing from AH. But, brains and money don't always equal success, and I have some insider info that suggests this is going to be a very tough market to penetrate. Unlike the server virtualization market where the platform was essentially "open", the networking market is a lot more tightly controlled.