For some, SDN was about operational efficiency; about driving more stability and consistency out of the processes that push applications through the app deployment pipeline into production. For others, it was really about financial efficiency – the drive to lower capital expenditures. And for yet others it was about efficient use of time – speed – in getting apps to market faster.
All had at their root this common theme – efficiency. IT and indeed businesses today are experiencing rapid and sometimes unexpected growth driven by demand for mobile applications and the introduction of things into the equation. All agree that IT is under incredible pressure to step up and become more fast, scalable and efficient in order to deliver the apps upon which business now relies in this new economy. SDN, like DevOps, is one of the ways in which organizations are looking to operationalize their networks using programmability to automate and orchestrate the processes that govern the production pipeline.