Software defined networking will play a key role in the rollout of global cloud services, said Yukio Ito, SVP Service Infrastructure for NTT Communications, at the Open Networking Summit in Santa Clara, California. NTT Communications, which is already using OpenFlow in some of its data centers, said its top three expectations for SDN are (1) quicker time to market (2) service differentiation and (3) CAPEX-OPEX reduction.
Ito said NTT Comm's ambition is to provide comprehensive cloud services around the world, built on a global virtualized server service. A cloud virtualization service that leverages SDN will be launching this summer.
Some other key points of his talk:
- A virtualized network enables automated network configuration changes.
- Centralized and automated control interface is a key benefit of the Virtualized Network.
- SDN is expected to deliver auto-scale out of workflows to multiple data centers. Normally, this scaling is limited to a single data center.
- NTT Comm's portal website will provide unified controls from cloud to server/application interaction, such as status visualization.
- NTT Comm is testing an OpenFlow Switch and OpenFlow Controller on a trans-Pacific link between data centers. OpenFlow enables virtual machines to be automatically replicated between the data center in Japan and the one in the United States.
- NTT Comm. is looking to expand OpenFlow from the data center to its end-to-end networking services. The key reason to do this would be simplification of the network layers -- each layer typically has it own management systems and this is cumbersome.
- A primary lesson from the great earthquake last year was that damaged routes must be restored quickly. NTT Comm believes virtualized technology could significantly speed-up this process.
- Following last year's great earthquake, NTT Comm's trans-Pacific capacity dropped from 490 Gbps to 180 Gbps but was restored to 340 Gbps in 6 days.
Slides from this presentation have been posted to the Open Networking Summit website.http://opennetsummit.orghttp://www.ntt.co.jp
