Code and compute might be changed around to improve end-users’ experience, but the network is the network, right? Actually, the application-first ethos is spreading to networking now with Software-Defined Wide Area Network, according to Davis Johnson (pictured), vice president and head of the U.S. public sector at Riverbed Technology Inc.

“We call it application-defined networking,” Johnson said in an interview during the AWS Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C. 

Advances in software-defined networking enable unprecedented composability, giving application makers and information technology admins another tweak-nob for delivering the best end-user experience possible, according to Johnson.

“We shouldn’t make decisions about the network without talking to the line of business or the mission leadership,” he told John Furrier (@furrier) and John Walls (@JohnWalls21), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

Their input on the harmony of all parts and consumers’ feedback can be backwards-integrated and programmed into the code or even the network if need be, he stated.

Riverbed asks customers, “How does this application have to behave? And then let’s design the network around the application,” he explained.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service has allowed end-to-end visibility into exactly where the weak link is in the chain from data center to application. Sometimes it is application’s code; it might also be the storage or compute pipelines; and “sometimes the network needs to be redesigned. A lot of the legacy networking infrastructure doesn’t work for cloud services or the application itself,” Johnson said.

Riverbed offers a visibility suite for this purpose, plus SteelHead for WAN Optimization and its SteelConnect on-ramp to cloud.

Network branches out

Composable SD-WAN allows users to send separate workloads to edge-points over different network lines instead of a single one-size-fits-all line, Johnson explained. Making these commands is also simplified.

“What SD-WAN brings to the table is zero-touch provisioning and one-click policy enforcement across all your branch sites,” Johnson said, adding that this could save some companies millions on over-provisioned networking.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of the AWS Public Sector Summit. (* Disclosure: Riverbed Technology Inc. sponsored this AWS Public Sector Summit segment on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Riverbed Technology nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE