Chapter 15

SDN Futures

Abstract

This chapter begins with a review of the current state of affairs of SDN, mapping SDN’s history and projected future to the well-known Gartner Hype Cycle. While it is easy to conclude that the turbulence and some of the pessimism surrounding SDN in recent times reflected a trough of disillusionment for SDN, it is also easy to remain optimistic about its future. It will surely take years to determine just what forms of SDN turn out to be dominant in the data centers of the future. This chapter argues that the optimism for SDN’s future derives not only from its impact on its most often-cited area of application, the data center, but also for the many areas of networking where we have only begun to consider the ...

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