Networking software enables the control, management, and monitoring of networks.
As networks grow in complexity and importance, delivering business-critical applications to employees and customers, managing them and maintaining business agility become more challenging.
Networking software—along with the software-defined networks (SDNs) it creates—helps engineers respond to those challenges by enabling the creation of intent-based networks (IBNs).
IBNs reduce IT workload and deployment time, make more-efficient use of resources, and enhance agility. They deliver those benefits by automatically translating business objectives into custom network configurations.
SDN is the practice of using software in place of hardware to define, deploy, and manage an enterprise network. The advantages of SDN are greater flexibility and agility, reduced workload through automation, and less downtime related to deployments.
Generally speaking, IBN is the goal of SDN. As users, devices, and distributed applications have grown in number, the networking environment has become exponentially more complex. IBN transforms a hardware-centric, manual network into a controller-led network. The network can then capture business intent and translate it into policies that can be automated and applied consistently.
Networking software receives intent instructions and translates them into policies that define the network.
Automation empowers IT teams to push out new network configurations more quickly and more accurately, enhancing agility.
Validation is achieved through analytics and machine learning to continuously monitor the network. The validation process verifies that the desired intents have been applied and the business outcomes are being achieved.
When networking software is acquired through subscriptions, feature upgrades and security updates can be made on demand. As a result, networks stay up to date.
Today's networks involve more vendors and operating systems than ever. Networking software sees them all, providing a way to manage and monitor diverse resources efficiently.
Networking software enables rapid response to changing business objectives. It does so by supporting faster deployments, updates, and fixes.
Networking software monitors network performance by collecting and analyzing usage data. Potential problems can be spotted early and resolved before they become serious issues.
Systems that respond quickly to help achieve everyday business objectives will better position organizations to respond to adverse conditions or unanticipated circumstances.
The transparency provided by monitoring and data collection helps prevent issues and optimize performance. It can also help ensure the efficient use of all network resources.