Increased online activity around topics like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) shows revived market interest in the networking aspect of the { compute, storage, networking } triade that forms the foundation of distributed systems in general, and the Internet in particular.
To a large extend, these concepts are nothing more than rephrased expressions of existing ideas. Virtualization and abstraction are not new, and anyone claiming that they are has simply not been around long enough. Still, things are not the same today as they were before. So what is different, and why, and how should we adapt to cope with this new reality?
Clay Shirky sheds some light on this in his book "Here Comes Everybody". Technological advances like broadband Internet have radically changed the world we live in, and this both enables and requires new ways of organizing our activities. It does not matter how we call it - enterprises need to adapt their processes and the behaviour and mindset of their employees in order to survive, evolve and procreate. Herein lies the true value of things currently being discussed under the name of "SDN" and "NFV".
Over the next few months I'll be exploring this topic in more depth. For now, let's start with a name: I am calling it the "Software Defined Enterprise"
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