How much is SDN?
A billion dollars in cash - that is how much VMware is willing to pay for Nicira, one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley. The total amount of the transaction will be $ 1.26 billion. Billion-dollar startup Nicira created three university professors less than 5 years ago. Nicira is a pioneer in the field of software-configured networks (PCS, in English - software defined networks, SDN).
Looks like a billion cash - just for clarity
Nicira was founded in 2007 by three university professors: Martin Casado (Martin Casado) and Nick McKeown (Stanford University) and Scott Shenker of Berkeley, one of the first to start the development of PCB technology.
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Martin casado
Nick McKinnon
Scott Schenker
The concept of the new network architecture, which later received the name of software-configured networks, emerged from Martin Casado's doctoral dissertation in 2006. Casado and McCounou understood that modern network architecture is outdated and, most likely, will not be able to serve the growing demands of the industry due level. Naturally, they were far from the first in this field. There were a lot of attempts and those who wanted to change the existing network architecture: it is enough to recall the technology developed by Cisco - label switching based on the MPLS protocol. Or Planet Lab - an international research project to develop new network services.
Unfortunately, making fundamental changes in network equipment and protocols was very difficult and impossible without the involvement of the manufacturer. Network building tools today are proprietary, closed to change by network owners and the scientific community. Almost always, the transition from the equipment of one vendor to another equipment is a big headache and the cost of huge financial resources.
In this situation, the idea of ​​McCoun, Casado and Schenker very well "shot": they proposed to separate the level of control and data transfer. In modern networks, these functions are combined, which makes control and management very difficult. The researchers suggested that if the switches "intercept" the management of the switching tables, one could arbitrarily control the behavior and speed characteristics of a single switch, and the parameters of transmitted data streams across all Ethernet networks. The problem of dependence on the equipment of one vendor Casado proposed to solve using the new network protocol OpenFlow. About him in general should be told separately.
The main idea of ​​the PKS approach is to:
The proposed concept was extremely favorably accepted by the scientific community. Next, a joint research center, the Open Networking Research Center , was created, in the laboratories of which the research on the subject of PCB continued. All research programs of the center are open, software within the framework of the PKS approach is Open Source.
In parallel with this, these Kassado, McKinnnon and Schenker are creating a commercial project Nicira, which should be engaged in the implementation of a new approach in the field of network virtualization. Nicira began to actively develop its own platform in the field of network virtualization - network virtualization platform (NPV).
The scheme of the platform.
The NVP works as a thin software layer at the edge of the network and is controlled by distributed clusters of controllers. It allows you to dynamically, without changing addresses and disrupting the workflow, create virtual networks endowed with all the properties and services of real analogs, supporting the mobility of virtual machines both within and between the data center. Independence from the equipment provides a complete cross-platform hardware and makes possible the stable operation of the virtual network even in the process of equipment upgrade.
A little later, Nicira was also developed - Distributed Virtual Network Infrastructure (DVNI), which allows you to create a distributed infrastructure of virtual networks in the cloud data center, completely abstracted from the physical network equipment.
According to Nicira CEO Stephen Mullaney, the results of operating a new platform in the data center of the largest cloud service operators show that without network virtualization, 20-30% of server data center resources remain untapped and the costs increase several times. In a very short time Nicira was able to get clients of the largest US providers: AT & T, NTT. Nicira customers also have such giants as eBay, DreamHost, Fidelity Investments, and Rackspace. In 2010, Nicira hit 25 promising startups .
Since 2009, Nicira has gone through 3 rounds of investments totaling about $ 50 million. In February 2012, in the third round, venture funds of Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates, D-Green (co-founder) VMware and Andy Rachleff, Benchmark Capital. And after only half a year, VMware announced their intention to buy Nicira for $ 1.26 billion. This is the first major deal that showed that we can already speak about a separate market for PKS solutions.
One Martin Kassado replaces a whole rack of servers.
The main result of the story: 3 teachers and private investors in just a few years were able to build a company worth $ 1 billion, which changed the approach to virtualization and in the near future will change the balance of power in the market of virtualization and network solutions. Journalists and experts are seriously asking whether software-configurable networks can “kill” market giants like Cisco, Juniper, IBM, Brocade, and can this deal be considered the beginning of the Cold War between VMware and Cisco ?
Meanwhile, Andressen Horowitz claims that in a few years the PKS solutions market will be about $ 40-50 billion, to Investors, who for half a year managed to make $ 50 million from $ 1.26 billion. I think you can believe.
PS
In the kamentah to the post promised to be noted everizhnikova from the Center for Applied Research of computer networks skolokovo, let's fill it with questions how to move the development of the PCB with us.
Looks like a billion cash - just for clarity
Nicira was founded in 2007 by three university professors: Martin Casado (Martin Casado) and Nick McKeown (Stanford University) and Scott Shenker of Berkeley, one of the first to start the development of PCB technology.
')
Martin casado
Nick McKinnon
Scott Schenker
The concept of the new network architecture, which later received the name of software-configured networks, emerged from Martin Casado's doctoral dissertation in 2006. Casado and McCounou understood that modern network architecture is outdated and, most likely, will not be able to serve the growing demands of the industry due level. Naturally, they were far from the first in this field. There were a lot of attempts and those who wanted to change the existing network architecture: it is enough to recall the technology developed by Cisco - label switching based on the MPLS protocol. Or Planet Lab - an international research project to develop new network services.
Unfortunately, making fundamental changes in network equipment and protocols was very difficult and impossible without the involvement of the manufacturer. Network building tools today are proprietary, closed to change by network owners and the scientific community. Almost always, the transition from the equipment of one vendor to another equipment is a big headache and the cost of huge financial resources.
In this situation, the idea of ​​McCoun, Casado and Schenker very well "shot": they proposed to separate the level of control and data transfer. In modern networks, these functions are combined, which makes control and management very difficult. The researchers suggested that if the switches "intercept" the management of the switching tables, one could arbitrarily control the behavior and speed characteristics of a single switch, and the parameters of transmitted data streams across all Ethernet networks. The problem of dependence on the equipment of one vendor Casado proposed to solve using the new network protocol OpenFlow. About him in general should be told separately.
The main idea of ​​the PKS approach is to:
- Separate network equipment management from data transmission management by creating special software that can work on a regular separate computer and which is under the control of a network administrator.
- Move from managing individual instances of network equipment to managing the network as a whole.
- Create an intelligent software-driven interface between the network application and the network transport environment.
The proposed concept was extremely favorably accepted by the scientific community. Next, a joint research center, the Open Networking Research Center , was created, in the laboratories of which the research on the subject of PCB continued. All research programs of the center are open, software within the framework of the PKS approach is Open Source.
In parallel with this, these Kassado, McKinnnon and Schenker are creating a commercial project Nicira, which should be engaged in the implementation of a new approach in the field of network virtualization. Nicira began to actively develop its own platform in the field of network virtualization - network virtualization platform (NPV).
The scheme of the platform.
The NVP works as a thin software layer at the edge of the network and is controlled by distributed clusters of controllers. It allows you to dynamically, without changing addresses and disrupting the workflow, create virtual networks endowed with all the properties and services of real analogs, supporting the mobility of virtual machines both within and between the data center. Independence from the equipment provides a complete cross-platform hardware and makes possible the stable operation of the virtual network even in the process of equipment upgrade.
A little later, Nicira was also developed - Distributed Virtual Network Infrastructure (DVNI), which allows you to create a distributed infrastructure of virtual networks in the cloud data center, completely abstracted from the physical network equipment.
According to Nicira CEO Stephen Mullaney, the results of operating a new platform in the data center of the largest cloud service operators show that without network virtualization, 20-30% of server data center resources remain untapped and the costs increase several times. In a very short time Nicira was able to get clients of the largest US providers: AT & T, NTT. Nicira customers also have such giants as eBay, DreamHost, Fidelity Investments, and Rackspace. In 2010, Nicira hit 25 promising startups .
Since 2009, Nicira has gone through 3 rounds of investments totaling about $ 50 million. In February 2012, in the third round, venture funds of Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates, D-Green (co-founder) VMware and Andy Rachleff, Benchmark Capital. And after only half a year, VMware announced their intention to buy Nicira for $ 1.26 billion. This is the first major deal that showed that we can already speak about a separate market for PKS solutions.
One Martin Kassado replaces a whole rack of servers.
The main result of the story: 3 teachers and private investors in just a few years were able to build a company worth $ 1 billion, which changed the approach to virtualization and in the near future will change the balance of power in the market of virtualization and network solutions. Journalists and experts are seriously asking whether software-configurable networks can “kill” market giants like Cisco, Juniper, IBM, Brocade, and can this deal be considered the beginning of the Cold War between VMware and Cisco ?
Meanwhile, Andressen Horowitz claims that in a few years the PKS solutions market will be about $ 40-50 billion, to Investors, who for half a year managed to make $ 50 million from $ 1.26 billion. I think you can believe.
PS
In the kamentah to the post promised to be noted everizhnikova from the Center for Applied Research of computer networks skolokovo, let's fill it with questions how to move the development of the PCB with us.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/148745/
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