SDN as an option.

Running a successful business means running efficient applications. When building and optimizing the network infrastructure that supports these applications, however, the need for speed, security and availability is usually associated with increases in capital spending and the labor-intensive tasks

A new network infrastructure design concept can increase performance and reduce costs. Service delivery networking (SDN) is an infrastructure design methodology that allows organizations to increase the speed, security and availability of their mission-critical applications.

In today's modular, non-SDN environments, the components of network, security and compliance are managed independently. Mission-critical data traverses these components over a variety of products run by different functions or groups within the organization.

In contrast, an SDN infrastructure is viewed as a vehicle for providing a service to an application, instead of each component in the IT environment being a separate resource. Security and regulatory compliance are "enabled" to the application through a few mouse clicks rather than rewritten into the application. The network has the intelligence to recognize individual applications and provide or supplement compliance, security and performance services.

To put it another way, while network equipment was traditionally only aware of Layers 1-3 in the open system interconnection (OSI) model, with SDN architecture, each networking device has awareness of all seven layers in the OSI model and can make decisions based on the content in those layers.

SDNs are not faster because of bigger pipes, but because they are application aware. Data can be managed and routed based on the individual application needs rather than by IP address, port number or protocol. Because performance, security and compliance are built directly into the network fabric, the number of networking devices is consolidated, yielding another performance improvement.

One area where SDNs can help is with payment card industry (PCI) compliance, which is a significant challenge for any organization that accepts credit cards. Almost every major business is affected, and compliance presents financial and technical hurdles.

One component of PCI compliance is the requirement to encrypt transmissions of credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. There may be a dozen or more applications that need to be compliant. The IT team may have to work with each application and business unit independently to ensure compliance requirements are met. This means a substantial investment in development time, money and resources to modify each application. This scenario could also apply to other compliance initiatives such as HIPAA, GLBA or SOX.

In an SDN environment, the network components (i.e., routers or switches) recognize the pattern of a credit card in the TCP/IP data stream and know what kind of application it came from. They then mask or encrypt that information seamlessly, working with the application to deliver the security requirements of PCI.

The network device then logs these events and is capable of delivering an audit trail for future review. Through a management console, an auditor is able to see where and when a credit card number traversed the environment from start to finish-all without modifying the original application.

Although SDN represents a new design concept, organizations do not necessarily have to spend a lot of money to realize its benefits. In fact, some SDN environments can be created without adding additional hardware. For many companies, converting an existing infrastructure to an SDN design will not be an expensive proposition.

Depending on the hardware vendor(s) and the age of current equipment, SDN could be just a software upgrade away. If your networking equipment was purchased in the last 12-18 months, it may already be capable of supporting SDN's performance, security and ROI benefits.

Joel A. Pogar is director of network solutions for Forsythe Solutions Group, Skokie, Ill.

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