Skip to main content

SDN: Can't Define It - Gotta Have It

Brad Reinboldt

It is no surprise that in this year's State of the Network annual survey of network professionals, Software-Defined Networks (SDN) was the prevailing topic. Yet in 2009, it wasn't even on the radar. And while SDN is all the buzz, this year's survey showed that not everyone is on the same page. In fact, when asked to define SDN, 37 percent of the network managers and engineers defined SDN as being "like a road trip without a map".




Click on picture to download a PDF of the State of the Network infographic


While no clear definition of SDN could be agreed upon, it was very clear that SDN has IT talking, with 12 percent regarding SDN as critical.

The survey also showed that IT departments are at odds with each other as to how important SDN is to a company and why. About 47 percent, nearly half, of network management did not think SDN was important, while more than half of network engineers said they'd just ride out the hype.

That being said, adoption amongst participants is projected to grow at a steady pace from the 12 percent of early adopters today, to 22 percent of respondents indicating they will have SDN in place by the end of 2014 and 32 percent by the end of 2015.

Why? Because SDN is not just about cost reduction — it's about making an organization agile. The top drivers of SDN cited in the State of the Network survey included the need to improve the network's ability to dynamically adapt to changing business demands (48 percent) and to deliver new services faster (40 percent). Others indicated lowering operating expenses, decreasing capital expenses, improving the ability to provision network infrastructure and designing more realistic network infrastructures as reasons behind SDN deployment.

With the many major initiatives IT is juggling, such as Big Data, Cloud services, Unified Communications (UC), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and 40Gb deployment, it is no wonder that IT departments have SDN in their sights. Whether network professionals can define it or not, many are rapidly deploying SDN while others seem to be evaluating what is hype vs. tangible benefits for their company before future deployment.

About the State of the Network Global Study: The State of the Network Global Study has been conducted annually for seven years. This year, Network Instruments engaged 241 network professionals to understand and quantify new technology adoption trends and daily IT challenges. Respondents were asked, via a third-party web portal, to answer a series of questions on the impact, challenges, and benefits of SDN, UC, Big Data and Application Performance Management. The results were based on responses by network engineers, IT directors, and CIOs from around the globe. Responses were collected from January 10, 2014 to March 7, 2014.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

SDN: Can't Define It - Gotta Have It

Brad Reinboldt

It is no surprise that in this year's State of the Network annual survey of network professionals, Software-Defined Networks (SDN) was the prevailing topic. Yet in 2009, it wasn't even on the radar. And while SDN is all the buzz, this year's survey showed that not everyone is on the same page. In fact, when asked to define SDN, 37 percent of the network managers and engineers defined SDN as being "like a road trip without a map".




Click on picture to download a PDF of the State of the Network infographic


While no clear definition of SDN could be agreed upon, it was very clear that SDN has IT talking, with 12 percent regarding SDN as critical.

The survey also showed that IT departments are at odds with each other as to how important SDN is to a company and why. About 47 percent, nearly half, of network management did not think SDN was important, while more than half of network engineers said they'd just ride out the hype.

That being said, adoption amongst participants is projected to grow at a steady pace from the 12 percent of early adopters today, to 22 percent of respondents indicating they will have SDN in place by the end of 2014 and 32 percent by the end of 2015.

Why? Because SDN is not just about cost reduction — it's about making an organization agile. The top drivers of SDN cited in the State of the Network survey included the need to improve the network's ability to dynamically adapt to changing business demands (48 percent) and to deliver new services faster (40 percent). Others indicated lowering operating expenses, decreasing capital expenses, improving the ability to provision network infrastructure and designing more realistic network infrastructures as reasons behind SDN deployment.

With the many major initiatives IT is juggling, such as Big Data, Cloud services, Unified Communications (UC), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and 40Gb deployment, it is no wonder that IT departments have SDN in their sights. Whether network professionals can define it or not, many are rapidly deploying SDN while others seem to be evaluating what is hype vs. tangible benefits for their company before future deployment.

About the State of the Network Global Study: The State of the Network Global Study has been conducted annually for seven years. This year, Network Instruments engaged 241 network professionals to understand and quantify new technology adoption trends and daily IT challenges. Respondents were asked, via a third-party web portal, to answer a series of questions on the impact, challenges, and benefits of SDN, UC, Big Data and Application Performance Management. The results were based on responses by network engineers, IT directors, and CIOs from around the globe. Responses were collected from January 10, 2014 to March 7, 2014.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...