IBM and NEC Team for OpenFlow Offering

January 26, 2012

Innovators are adopting OpenFlow-based networking to transform their networks using a new solution provided by IBM and NEC. These leading organizations are deploying the IBM and NEC standards-based OpenFlow solution to power dynamic networks, manage massive amounts of information and deliver new services.

Examples of OpenFlow innovators using this complete, high performance commercial solution include Stanford University, Tervela and Selerity Corp. Stanford, the originators of the OpenFlow protocol, will deploy IBM and NEC’s solution in a parallel network to test OpenFlow’s applicability to the university’s production environment. Tervela, provider of a market-leading, distributed data fabric, has validated that this solution delivers a breakthrough in dynamic networking to ensure predictable performance of Big Data for complex and demanding business environments, such as global trading, risk analysis and e-commerce. Selerity, provider of ultra-low latency event data, will employ IBM and NEC’s OpenFlow solution to accelerate real-time decision-making for global financial markets.

Initially created by researchers and universities, OpenFlow and Software Defined Networking (SDN) are gaining traction in today’s enterprise data centers for Big Data, cloud and workload optimized systems. OpenFlow holds great promise for smarter computing by enabling organizations to more easily modify, control and manage today’s dynamic physical and virtual networks. IBM was first to market with an OpenFlow-enabled 10/40GbE top of rack switch and NEC was first to market with its ProgrammableFlow OpenFlow-based network controller. NEC demonstrated this OpenFlow solution first at Interop Las Vegas 2011, where NEC was awarded Best of Show for Infrastructure.

“IBM’s investment in OpenFlow reflects the market reality that the data center network is vital to business, driving new ways for users to control the functionality of networks to meet application requirements more simply, flexibly and intelligently,” said IBM Fellow and CTO of IBM System Networking Renato Recio. “OpenFlow is a disruptive networking technology that offers a new level of interoperability and user control and which can ultimately transform the very economics of data centers. NEC and IBM have demonstrated leadership as early adopters of OpenFlow, as well as being first to market with a complete, high performance solution that addresses customer needs for a smarter network.”

“In today's data center and cloud environments, new business demands and innovations in compute infrastructure have increased the strains on data center networks,” said Director of Business Development, IT Platform Group, NEC Corporation of America Don Clark. “The NEC and IBM first-to-market high performance OpenFlow solution meets these challenges by providing a radically simplified and open infrastructure for data center and cloud networks, allowing customers to streamline the management of data center networks through greater levels of automation while driving down operational costs and time to deliver business services.”

IBM and NEC OpenFlow/SDN Innovator Deployments

"OpenFlow enables the evolution to a smarter network that can deliver and protect business-critical data with the predictable performance required for demanding applications such as global trading and e-commerce,” said Director of Software Engineering Michael Matatia, Tervela. “OpenFlow promises Tervela’s customers a competitive edge by ensuring that the network adapts dynamically to business needs by, for example, automatically segregating network traffic based on real-time statistics. The IBM/NEC solution enables our customers to use OpenFlow’s programmable intelligence using high-performance network components that also simplifies the complexities of managing mission-critical networks.”

“Selerity delivers machine-readable event data immediately as news is breaking, requiring the fastest possible network performance,” said Chief Technology Officer Andrew Brook, Selerity. “OpenFlow gives us the flexibility of an application with the performance of a switch. The combination of NEC OpenFlow controller and IBM RackSwitch can distribute data across our global low-latency network in an innovative way that can be as much as 1,000 times faster than a conventional server-based application.”

Delivering a campus network that can support advanced services is the core challenge for Stanford University’s Network Backbone. Stanford University's Network Services organization will be deploying NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Switch and Controller and IBM’s RackSwitch to be used in the deployment of an OpenFlow network parallel to the production network. This network will allow the university to test OpenFlow functionality and applicability to the Stanford environment.