Network virtualization is essentially a system that can help IT teams overlay numerous logical networks all on a single shared physical network.
Software-defined networking, or SDN, is based on the idea that your network controller and data plane must be separated from each other. This helps enable central control of a distributed network.
SDN is essentially a popular form of network virtualization that’s used for data centers and helps move away from the traditional VLANs that require manual intervention for virtualization.
Well, now that we’ve got the technical definitions cleared up, let’s get down to understanding how both of these are essential for data centers.
The Need for SDN
Before we get into the benefits of the SDN method of network virtualization, it’s important to understand why SDN is needed in the first place. In simple terms, SDN is necessary for making your network programmable. It does so by decoupling the control of the network from the hardware and gives this control to a software-based controller.
The idea here was to make it an open-source method such that the standards aren’t tied up with a particular vendor or gear. As a result, SDN can bring flexibility to data center operators as they can use it with different vendors. For instance, they can easily change things up in the software to bring in a new policy rather than going through a complex process of getting new appliances or working on the hardware.
So, what are the advantages of using the SDN method of network virtualization for data centers?
Let’s find out.
Advantages of SDN Network Virtualization for Data Centers
Here are the various benefits of leveraging SDN for network virtualization in data centers.
1. Big Data Management
Big data has become very popular for organizations when it comes to decision making. In fact, about 120 zettabytes of data is predicted to be created in 2023. This massive data would be stored in data centers and even transmitted to and from them.
While this calls for increased storage capacity, there’s another hurdle to cross. Organizations regularly hire employees who have big data certifications to both manage and analyze this huge data.
Due to this reason, data centers require a lot of bandwidth as numerous organizations will go through their data. With SDN, this data throughput and connectivity can be managed better, ensuring smooth big data management.
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2. Cloud Traffic Support
With the rise of SaaS (software as a service) and other cloud-based services like video marketing tools, there’s been a rise in cloud traffic. In fact, it was estimated that by the end of 2021, 94% of all workload would be handled by cloud data centers and only the rest would be handled by traditional ones.
Owing to the pay-as-you-go model offered by cloud providers, it’s become easy for both businesses and consumers to switch to it for flexibility. But as data center operators, how do you provide self-service and on-demand capacity features to your clients?
That’s where SDN network virtualization comes into the picture. It enables you to dynamically provide demand for resources based on their availability within a data center. Thus, SDN is indispensable for the operation of cloud-based services.
3. Scalable Infrastructure
When doing network virtualization with traditional methods like VLAN, there’s a lot of effort involved in the addition of devices for scaling your data center operations. And there’s always the risk of causing a service interruption, which can hamper user experience of the end customers.
With SDN, new devices can be added with ease and there’s a lower risk of interruption in this case. Additionally, SDN works very well for parallel processing and the design of networks that have been virtualized.
4. Security and Policy Management
It’s important to secure your data centers as they may hold a lot of sensitive data. Given the increase in cyberattacks over the years-the cost of cybercrime is expected to increase to $10.5 trillion by 2025 for all companies worldwide.
Needless to say, a data center is right at the center of it all. If you deploy the right cybersecurity measures, there will be lower chances of any data breaches. This, in turn, would ensure that your end customers don’t lose their data.
SDN finds applications here as well. This method comes in very handy for effectively deploying security policies throughout your network. It can do so even throughout your firewalling devices, thus ensuring that your data center can thwart cyberattacks and keep data secure. It also ensures that your operations will never get impacted by them.
5. Managing Traffic
With SDN network virtualization, it’s possible to use dynamic routing tables. These tables can help with routing prioritization that’s based on real-time feedback from your network.
And what does this help you achieve?
In this process, you can manage your virtual machines with greater ease. And this makes SDN a very favorable network virtualization method.
Final Thoughts
Network virtualization is an essential ingredient of any data center and you can’t operate efficiently without it. SDN is easily one of the most important ways of going about this network virtualization process.
It brings in numerous advantages such as ease of managing traffic, better security and policy management, big data management, cloud traffic support, and better scalability. These benefits can make your data center more resilient and competitive.
So, go ahead and start leveraging this method for the network virtualization of your data center.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years | 10X leads | 2.8X conversions | 300K organic monthly traffic. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more.
