Software-defined networking (SDN) is not just for the enterprise anymore. This week at Interop Las Vegas, Hewlett-Packard announced new solutions designed to bring programmable connectivity to small- and medium-sized businesses that don’t have the resources to build out and maintain a sophisticated next-generation network in-house but stand to benefit from the technology just as much as their larger peers.

“What SDN does is it makes the network responsive to the business in the time frame that the business needs it to be, and that’s the difference,” said Bethany Mayer, the head of HP’s networking business, in a recent appearance on SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE (see the entire segment below).

Software-defined networking also greatly reduces the need for onsite IT staff, she added, a potential game changer for budget-strapped SMBs. Person-hours once spent on keeping the lights can now be freed up to drive tangible business value.

“These are huge change – and sadly they’re huge changes because the network hasn’t been any different for the last 30 years – but they’re huge changes that need to happen anyway, and that are happening as a result of SDN,” Mayer noted.

The HP 517 and the OpenFlow-enabled 560 wireless access points, two of the new products introduced during the event, support the the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard and cost up to 30 percent less to deploy than alternatives, according to the company. That combination makes them well suited for use in SMBs and remote offices. The devices can be managed via the HP Cloud Managed Network, a hosted admin platform available on a pay-per-use basis that provides a unified environment for provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting networks. It also allows users to schedule security reports and implement pre-prepared configurations, further automating administration and lowering overhead costs.

The access points are joined by a pair of unified network appliances for managing wired and wireless connections. The HP 850 Unified Wired-WLAN Appliance supports up to 10,000 devices while the 870 Unified Wired-WLAN Appliance can accommodate as many as 30,000, 40 percent more than Cisco’s competing 5760 Series LAN controller.

Hewlett-Packard is offering a number of network applications for its new hardware products, including HP Location Aware, which can automatically detect wireless devices indoors with an accuracy of about six and a half feet. It’s designed for retail use cases such as context-aware shopping. asset management and security applications.

The new access points and the 870 appliance are available immediately, while the HP Cloud Managed Network and the 850 controller are set to hit general availability in June.

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