The IT network has something to say: “I messed up.” The first step of recovery is admitting while you’re in recovery, right? Well, the networking industry as we know it is finally admitting some big trends it’s ignored in recent years: mobility, cloud, Big Data and security. Applications and the Enterprise are two areas where the network is having to play catch-up, and software-defined networking (SDN) is emerging. But don’t think SDN is a zero-sum gain.

In her interview with theCUBE at HP Discover Barcelona 2013, SVP & GM, HP Networking Bethany Mayer detailed how HP is tackling networking in 2013. The network needs to be more responsive to the application, “everything is about the application,” said Mayer. SDN is the “how” in how networks change to support those applications.

“We program the network in an automated way using software and make sure the network is responsive to the apps we want to run over it for our various customers,” Mayer says.

The likes of Facebook, Google, etc. set the stage for SDN. Facebook, for example, changed their paradigms within its own environment because their business was driving them to do it — a blank slate if you will. And after the mass scale of Google and then Facebook, the enterprise took notice. Automation, dynamically changing behaviors, an “Ahaa” moment for the Enterprise. As more and more Big Data is hosted in the Enterprise, more and more automation, programability and dynamic nature is required.

Those old systems and legacies cannot simply be thrown away either. But, (and a very big but), HP doesn’t think that the Enterprise should. The idea is simple: utilize SDN in certain segments of a business, retain those network infrastructures and over-time migrate to a SDN network. HP is a standards-based business, and even though for the last 25 years the tech community has collectively said those “standards are going away,” they are only strengthening in importance. There are many things that just work better in hardware. “We’re able to support certain kind of applications, security is a good example,” said Mayer.

HP believes utilizing the best of both worlds: hardware plus software is the winning solution. The nirvana that all technology is moving towards is a programmable network. And in regards to software “eating the world” and the very essence of HP’s business, Mayer didn’t bat an eye.

theCUBE host David Floyer alluded to a situation of “a 60 plus percent market share player looking down the pipe at the open-standard thats emerging (like EMC) that will threaten the base…” Not in Mayer’s eyes. She coolly took a shot at Cisco, even getting a laugh from the panel:

““I think one we’re going to win, to be honest. The reason why is customers, its pretty straight forward, customers like open-standards, they like heterogeneity, they like choice…they also like dynamic behavior of network. And what Cisco’s chosen to do is build a box, which they likes boxes, so they built another box … it’s the 9000 now. So they built a 9000 to go into the data center. It doesn’t work with their 7000’s, or their 3000’s, or their 1000’s, but…its a box.”

HP has a clear line-of-sight for SDN adoption and interoperability. Through its app store for networking, HP is empowering app providers to write applications for the network. Those providers want the network to respond appropriately when using HP’s APIs and the likes of SAP, Microsoft, Infoblox, VMware, etc. are committing applications. For the customers, its as simple as clicking a button and downloading and applying to their specific network.

theCUBE co-host John Furrier dubbed it: real-time provision and automation. Mayer then chimed in: a service catalog, self-service enterprise for networking.

The network and its network layers are changing, and the four very large trends of mobility, cloud, Big Data and security are creating new opportunities as well as new challenges every single day. HP is committed to getting the network where it needs to be.

“Unfortunately, networking for many many years basically didn’t keep up with, almost semi-ignored, and now those trends are really demanding that the network change and that the network be responsive enough to put an application in the cloud as fast as you can swipe your Amex through Amazon or public cloud,” Mayer concluded.