One of the key decisions which most IT departments will be making in the next few years is whether they should adopt Software-Defined Networking (SDN) in place of their traditional IT infrastructure. The adoption of SDN is seeing increased growth among enterprises, especially among organizations which are set to benefit by transforming their current IT infrastructure and design into a leaner and more efficient structure that minimizes costs and improves efficiency in the long run. Juniper Networks, announced research findings on this area, saying that more than half (52.5%) of businesses in the US already have plans to adopt SDN while the remaining 47.5% do not have any plans to do so.
The research which was conducted on behalf of Juniper by Wakefield Researches also showed that of those who have plans to implement SDN, 70% said that they are starting sometime within the next year with 30% planning to go ahead within the next month. More than 27% of the respondents said that they are completly ready or almost completly ready to adopt SDN.
Juniper Networks, in its research release statement also said that the 400 IT decision makers who took part in the research are aware of the challenges of implementing the SDN, citing the following as the major barriers for the adoption of SDN - Cost (50%), Integration and Compatibility (35%), Security Concerns (34%) and Lack of Skills (28%). However, despite these challenges, IT decision makers expect the implementation of SDN to deliver huge benefits for their enterprises, with 26% respondents expecting improved network performance and efficiency while another 19% and 13% expecting simplification of network operations and cost savings on operations, respectively. The report also listed 'high availability and resiliency' and 'analytics and reporting' as the top goals across enterprises adopting SDN.
“The networking industry is going through a fundamental technology change driven by the need to turn up customer-facing apps more quickly and to simplify network operations. This evolution to SDN will not be overnight, but we're excited to see it happen and to partner with companies to help them realize their full SDN potential."
- Mike Marcellin, senior vice president of strategy and marketing for Juniper Networks
