The Long March to SDN Transformation

There's been much progress in transforming enterprise networks, but not enough organizations equate advances in software-defined networking (SDN) with increased business agility, according to a new survey from Juniper Networks and Wakefield Research of 2,700 IT decision makers (ITDMs) and business decision makers (BDMs). More than 90 percent of ITDMs say they have deployed SDNs and network-functions virtualization (NFV) software, yet only a third say their environment is predominantly based on SDNs. Most organizations operate two networking environments. One based on SDN technology tends to be highly automated. The other is based on legacy networking technology that requires each piece of networking equipment to be manually configured. The biggest challenge in shifting to SDNs is available budget. Yet seven out of 10 IT decision makers say the business leaders inside their firms don't view the network as critical to company success. A compelling case must be made that links advanced networking services to digital business initiatives in a way senior business execs can understand. Otherwise, the study suggests, advances in enterprise networking will be dictated more by infrastructure depreciation cycles than business strategy.