Software-defined networking (SDN) is a vital tool for businesses that want to stay agile. It brings a programmable layer to the network, allowing a company to adjust things for their needs, as they need. OpenDaylight is an open-source SDN platform designed as a standard for interoperable, programmable networks. Along with early adopters, an ecosystem has started to grow around OpenDaylight and SDN services.

To get a closer look at OpenDaylight, John Furrier (@furrier) and Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016 conference in Mountain View, California. There, they met with Lisa Caywood, director of Ecosystem Development for the OpenDaylight Project at the Linux Foundation.

Winning over the early adopters

The conversation started with a look at early adopters for OpenDaylight. Caywood explained there has been a wave of adoption, starting with the telcos. These companies are defined by their networks, and SDN has been something they’ve embraced to get agile quickly. She then pointed out that many of the projects in the upcoming release have been proposed by users as part of the ecosystem that is growing around OpenDaylight.

Caywood described the benefits for companies, including speeding up service delivery and tying operations together in a practical manner.

An ecosystem feedback loop

One thing OpenDaylight did early on was set up an advisory group, Caywood said. Many potential customers were in a wait-and-see mode, but the advisory board allowed them to have input on the project. She stated this feedback loop is out in the open, inspiring ideas in the community.

“The ecosystem is already starting to build up,” she said.

Caywood then described seeing the channel network building up around OpenDaylight. People are seeing SDN as an opportunity for a whole new revenue stream. As an example, she mentioned school districts using SDN to manage their networks. Open source is real, it’s providing value, and there are monetization opportunities all across the ecosystem, such as taking piece parts and creating custom solutions for customers, she said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE