Tech Insights

Software Defined Networking (SDN)

Last updated May 19, 2025, generated by Sumble

What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)?

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration in order to improve network performance and monitoring. It decouples the data plane (which forwards traffic) from the control plane (which makes decisions about how to forward traffic), centralizing network control. This allows network administrators to have programmable central control of network traffic without requiring physical access to the network's hardware devices. SDN is commonly used in data centers, cloud computing, and enterprise networks to improve agility, scalability, and efficiency.

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What other technologies are related to Software Defined Networking (SDN)?

Software Defined Networking (SDN) Competitor Technologies

Cisco ACI

Cisco ACI is a competitor because it's a proprietary SDN architecture, which provides an alternative approach to open SDN solutions. ACI integrates hardware and software tightly, while SDN generally encourages hardware and software separation.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 1% (103) of relevant job posts

MPLS

MPLS provides traffic engineering and VPN capabilities, overlapping with some SDN use cases, particularly in WAN environments. SDN can offer similar functionalities with more flexibility and programmability, making them competing solutions in certain scenarios.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 0% (178) of relevant job posts

SD-WAN

SD-WAN is a specific application of SDN to wide area networks. While related, SD-WAN solutions often offer comprehensive capabilities that might compete with a more general SDN implementation for WAN management.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 0% (79) of relevant job posts

Software Defined Networking (SDN) Complementary Technologies

Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

NFV and SDN are often used together; NFV virtualizes network functions, while SDN provides the control plane for managing the virtualized infrastructure. NFV is a strong complement to SDN's goals by virtualizing many functions performed by hardware devices.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 44% (147) of relevant job posts

Cloud Networking

Cloud networking is complementary because SDN principles are often applied in cloud environments to provide agility, automation, and programmability.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 2% (54) of relevant job posts

firewalls

Firewalls are network security devices, and in SDN environments, they can be virtualized and managed centrally via the SDN controller. Therefore they can be complementary.

mentioned alongside Software Defined Networking (SDN) in 0% (224) of relevant job posts