Enterprise SDN – An Allied Telesis Model

SDN is still in its infancy and, at the moment, no one really knows where the journey will lead. What the future holds is open and the possibilities are endless. Currently, the focus is on data centers, but soon the challenge will shift towards delivering the benefits of SDN to enterprise users.

One of the benefits of SDN is centralized management, where the entire network can be managed from a single location. At Allied Telesis we have already built a management solution based on this principle to simplify the IT management of enterprise networks. The Allied Telesis Management Framework (AMF) simplifies network management, reduces costs and frees up the time of skilled staff to better use them on proactive projects rather than reactive maintenance.

In parallel with AMF, Allied Telesis is developing switching products that will offer an OpenFlow capability so they can be easily integrated into SDN applications. These products will be hybrids, offering both OpenFlow and traditional intelligent switching capabilities, configurable on a per-port basis. This provides flexibility for the user and an easy migration path to incrementally upgrade an existing network with as much SDN as appropriate for their business.

Allied Telesis operates with a customer-centric approach, and today works closely with partners and customers to develop and design future-proof networks, knowing that with or without SDN, networks must be robust, resilient, scalable, flexible and easy to implement and maintain. Our philosophy is to concentrate our efforts on solutions that reduce costs and help users manage the complexity of their networks and applications. By adopting an incremental approach to the implementation of SDN, customers will achieve lower total cost of ownership and a network built for the future.

At Allied Telesis, we pride ourselves on our ability to form close partnerships with our customers and to understand and predict their needs – so that our solutions meet their needs, both now and into the future.