Software Defined Networking - the Hype and the Reality

Abstract

There’s been a lot of industry talk about Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and how it’s going to transform the way networks are built, managed used and accessed. Some articles and announcements suggest that SDN is already here; others claim that it’s right around the corner — that it’s “set to boom” and “about to hit the big time”, still others such as Gartner are reporting that "SDN is making users grumpy rather than delivering promised benefits". Arista Networks has been right at the centre of SDN since its inception and there’s a lot of hype out there. Hugh Holbrook, VP Software Engineering at Arista Networks will discuss SDN and what it really is and means today. After all software runs on hardware at the end of the day. Hugh Holbrook leads the development and testing of the platform and system software at Arista Networks. At Arista since 2005, he has led the development of many of the foundations of Arista's EOS. Before Arista, he worked at Cisco and played a key role in the software and hardware evolution of the Catalyst 4500. He is the inventor of Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), chaired the IETF working group that standardized it, and has authored multiple RFCs including the PIM-SM protocol spec. He holds eight patents in networking, systems, and hardware design. Hugh has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Stanford University in Computer Science

Short Bio

Venue

Large Conference Room, O'Reilly Institute