The allure of software-defined networking’s ability to deliver automated technology has once again caught a tech giant’s eye.

Last month, Hewlett-Packard unveiled on of the industry’s first enterprise-class SDN open ecosystems with the HP SDN Developer Kit (SDK) and the HP SDN App Store.  The hope is for the creation of new business opportunities for HP’s partners, as well as providing a simple way for customers to purchase and deploy network services.

“With SDN the networking industry has an opportunity to disruptively innovate and is now primed for a monumental leap forward,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager, Networking, HP. “HP has created the industry’s most comprehensive SDN product portfolio as well as an open SDN ecosystem, which offers an environment for enterprises and partners to rapidly tune the network to their business and application needs.”

Developers + open source : the heart of SDN

The HP SDN Developer Kit offers essential tools to developers that would allow them to create, test and validate SDN applications, leveraging HP’s SDN infrastructure and full complement of support services. As for the HP SDN App Store, it lets customers browse, search, purchase and directly download SDN applications onto their Virtual Application Networks SDN controller, to extend a new business model for how network services are both purchased and implemented.

Partners registered for the HP SDN Developer Kit include Aastra, Blue Coat Systems, BlueCat, Citrix Systems, Ecode Networks, F5, Infoblox, Infranics, Intel, Microsoft, MIMOS, PwC, Qosmos, Radware, Real Status, Riverbed, RMIT University, ShoreTel Inc., SAP, Tech Mahindra, VMware, Versatile and Websense.

“One of our biggest priorities is delivering new innovations that keep pace with customer demands for new services,” said Ricardo Pedreti, data networking marketing manager, Telefonica|Vivo Corporate Customers. “The simplicity and automation enabled by HP’s SDN solution, removes complexity and will allow us to accelerate the delivery of next-generation services.”

To help with its open source initiatives, HP recently hired Bill Hilf, who served as general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud service dubbed as the person who introduced open source to the software company.  Hilf now serves as HP’s vice president of converged cloud products and services.

A growing market of software-defined solutions

As mentioned above, HP isn’t the only one playing the SDN card.

HP competitor Dell recently unveiled the S6000, an SND-enabled switching platform that introduces support for VMware’s NSX network virtualization layer.

Then there’s OpenDaylight Project, the collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate adoption of SDN and create a solid foundation for network functions virtualization (NFV) for a more transparent approach that fosters new innovation and reduces risk, recently shared the first glimpse of “Hydrogen,” the first release o of OpenDaylight’s SDN architecture.

And the Juniper Networks SDN Technology Program recently got a new member to boost its efforts.  Lumeta, a privately-held provider of network discovery solutions, will integrate its IPsonar suite to Juniper’s newly unveiled Contrail platform.  IPsonar will take advantage of this abstraction to help organizations “test the security posture of their virtualized networks within an ever-changing SDN environment.”