Onug looks to serve as enterprise voice in sdn

ON THIS WEEK’S NFV/SDN REALITY CHECK WE SPEAK WITH ONUG ON ITS ADVOCACY FOR OPEN INTEROPERABLE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE-DEFINED INFRASTRUCTURE Enterprises are seen as some of the earliest test

cases in terms of the telecommunications industry’s push into virtualization platforms, with many operators working with those enterprise customers on applications and services using

software-defined networking, network functions virtualization and cloud. At the same time, many enterprises are themselves moving into the software-defined space as they look to driver

further efficiencies across their operations. The one challenge to this move is in garnering sufficient economies of scale in terms of working with the vendor community in supplying the

platforms needed by enterprises. One organization looking to bridge that gap is the Open Networking User Group, which was formed in 2012, with an initial focus on membership from a number of

financial institutions, including Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, JPMorgan Chase and UBS. The organization focuses on an open cloud infrastructure and providing members with insight

into deployment opportunities using software-defined networking platforms. The organization recently moved on its first collaborative effort to launch a set of initiatives it said are

focused on open IT frameworks and mark its commitment to help support a transition to open software-defined infrastructure. The initiatives include the Open SD-WAN Exchange; Open

Interoperable Control Plane; Open Traffic Management Format; and Open Network State Format. ONUG said the initiatives were based on its working group member requirements. Current ONUG

members include Cisco, Glue Networks, NetScout, NTT Innovation Institute, Nuage Networks, Verizon Communications and Versa Networks, among others. Supporting vendors are set to participate

in a series of four ONUG workshops in New York later this year, with ONUG planning to host update sessions at its fall event. On this week’s show, we speak with Nick Lippis, co-chairman and

co-founder of the Open Networking User Group, on its efforts in serving as the enterprise voice in the continued push towards virtualized platforms. Make sure to check us out again next week

when we are scheduled to speak with Versa Networks on the importance of testing and interoperability for NFV and SDN. _Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter _