The Open Networking Summit 2017, presented by The Linux Foundation, starts today in Santa Clara, California, and will cover the full range of open networking across enterprise, cloud and service providers.

SiliconANGLE will be at the Open Networking Summit with exclusive interviews from its live streaming studio, theCUBE. At the event, theCUBE will explore how the concept of “software is eating the world” impacts information technology networking.

Cisco Systems Inc. has held a dominant position in the hardware networking market for decades. According to reports last month, the company is rumored to be developing a standalone networking operating system. The system will reportedly bring high-end networking features to older and lower-cost Cisco routers and switches.  

“Software-defined networking holds the promise of giving a more flexible and open ecosystem,” said Stu Miniman, principal research contributor of the analyst group Wikibon, owned by the same parent company as SiliconANGLE. In 2012, VMware Inc. acquired Nicira Inc. for $1.26 billion, a move that was seen as a validation of the growing SDN market. Since the acquisition, however, there hasn’t been the expected progress and Cisco continues to dominate.

One of the keynote speakers at the Open Networking Summit is Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Casado, whom Miniman refers to as “the godfather of SDN,” is also the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Nicira and created OpenFlow while at Stanford University. His keynote presentation at the Open Networking Summit is entitled “Make SDN Real.”

Another recent acquisition in December saw VMware purchase PLUMgrid Inc., an early contender in the SDN business.

“In the telco space, network function virtualization has grown to be an interesting solution set. Similar to SDN, NFV is a software-based solution that makes it easier for telecom providers to deliver services over their network,” said Miniman. Cisco recently announced an extended push toward network virtualization with the announcement of a new hardware platform and virtual network services for branch locations.

The Open Network Foundation’s “Open Innovation Pipeline” is a development framework that aims to advance SDN and NFV through open-source platforms, network device disaggregation and new network standards. The Open Network Foundation is currently in the process of merging with the Open Networking Lab to help drive SDN and NFV adoption.

The migration to the 5G network further increases the need to deploy NFV technologies.

At this year’s Open Networking Summit, thought leaders will explore the future of networking beyond SDN and NFV.

Guest speakers at the Open Networking Summit include Rashesh Jethi, senior vice president and head of research and development for Americas at Amadeus IT Group SA; Eyal Felstaine, chief technology officer, head of technology office at Amdocs Inc.; and Lakshmi Sharma, vice president of cloud and computing at Target Corp.

Other speakers include Sam Greenblatt, C-level technologist, investor and author; Amin Vahdat, Google fellow and technical lead for networking at Google Inc.; and Sandra Rivera, vice president and general manager of network platforms group at Intel Corp.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

There are various ways to watch all of theCUBE interviews that will be taking place at the Open Networking Summit, including SiliconANGLE TV and YouTube. You can also get all the coverage from the event on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE’s coverage for day one starts on Tuesday, Apr. 4, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PDT.

SiliconANGLE TV

You can watch all of theCUBE’s exclusive interviews and commentary from the Open Networking Summit on the dedicated SiliconANGLE TV page. The guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE at the Open Networking Summit have not be finalized yet, but we will keep you updated on the official SiliconANGLE TV page.

Watch on the SiliconANGLE YouTube channel

All of theCUBE interviews from this year’s Open Networking Summit will also be loaded onto SiliconANGLE’s dedicated YouTube channel.

Cubecasts

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on both SoundCloud and iTunes, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Image: The Linux Foundation