63% of large enterprises to deploy SDN by 2016: Juniper-IDC study

BENGALURU: A study conducted by Juniper Networks and IT market research and advisory firm IDC has revealed that a majority of large enterprises in India were planning to deploy Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies as part of their network architecture by 2016.

In recent times, SDN has become the buzzword in the networking industry and is widely tipped to be the next game-changer. The Juniper Networks commissioned study by IDC entitled ‘Understanding SDN is the key to transformation’, surveyed 171 IT decision-makers from over 151 organizations across various industries, to find out more on their plans to deploy SDN in their networks.

Highlights from the Juniper Networks commissioned study by IDC indicate that 63% of large enterprises in India plan to deploy SDN as part of their network architecture in 2016. The study found that 22% of the respondents were ‘users’, defined as organizations that have deployed SDN in the pilot stage while the rest of the respondents were ‘intenders’ who were planning to deploy SDN in the near future. Among the ‘intenders’, 40% were planning to deploy SDN within the next year, while the other 60% were aiming to deploy SDN after two years or more. The study further revealed that 59% of respondents said they understood the concept of SDN or understood the technology completely.

In terms of investment 42% of intenders and 34% of users do not have a specific budget assigned to the purchase of SDN solutions. Nineteen percent of intenders and 28% of users are willing to consider more than 7% of their IT budget for SDN implementation. The study analyzed that improved network performance and efficiency emerged as the top benefit of adopting SDN.

Although 86% of respondents projected that enterprise networks of the future will be a combination of SDN and traditional networks, they also cited initial concerns like difficulty in integrating SDN with already deployed or available infrastructure, security concerns, technical skill gap, total cost of ownership, and lack of management.

Commenting on the study, Sajan Paul, Director of Systems Engineering, India & SAARC at Juniper Networks, said, “SDN has the potential to transform the networking landscape. The Juniper Networks-commissioned study by IDC clearly indicates the areas in which SDN solutions need to perform well if it wishes to establish itself as the new norm in networking. The need of the hour then becomes educating and creating awareness in the industry on the benefits of SDN. To further this cause, Juniper has initiated SDN training programs that have created awareness amongst potential users.”

Paul also added, “The networking architecture landscape in India is in a state of transition and the software-defined model can enable significant advantages, making it the logical solution every organization turns to for better efficiency and security. With 65% of the respondents across sectors being aware of the benefits of deploying SDN, we are on the verge of a unique and significant transition in the industry.”

Gaurav Sharma, Research Manager, Enterprise Computing, IDC India, commented, “Organizations wanting to derive business value from their 3rd platform investments need to now provide a digital nervous system to support the exponential data growth and increase in performance expectations as a next step. Innovations like SDN can enable the organizations with an unmatched capacity, flexibility and scale that can act as a worthy foundation to help achieve that business value. India is at a critical juncture where organizations now need to move forward and start adopting innovations like SDN to be able to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment.”