Calsoft Blog

Now we can connect a client and a server in a couple of different ways - and could be setup in a software-defined network. A Software define network attempts to build a computer network by separating it into two systems. The 1st system is the control plane which provides performance and fault management being a NetFlow, IPFIX, SNMP and other standard protocols. It typically handles configuration management at the SDN compliant devices and understands the network topology. Loaded with these details the controller can process connection request based on desired requirements such QoS levels. The controller can also perform link management between devices. The second system is the data plan which responsible for forwarding traffic to the selected destination. Switches can either be reliant on the controller to make forwarding decisions or make the decisions on their own. The control plane configures connection pads or flows into the data plan through the use of a control protocol. Th...

When we talk about IT infrastructure, it consists of three major components - compute, storage and networking. In the new era of IT, virtualization has given a new shape to these technologies. This write-up is to understand how we can leverage the power of network virtualization with the help of automation. Before talking about network virtualization concept, let’s raise this question - why we need virtualization? Does it make our life simple? I will not hesitate to say “yes”; but at the expense of stepping out from comfort zone of legacy systems and learning new concepts. Many of you may not agree with me now until I justify my point by highlighting power of virtualization along with automation. Virtualization, the term is commonly used for Server virtualization or virtual machines. However, the horizon has been extended to the new concepts like Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Storage (SdS). As SdS is beyond the scope of this discussion, let’s ...

With the advent of programmable NW concept, the possibilities of innovation within the NW has increased manifold. However, that also brings up a challenge of revamping the existing toolsets like NW Monitoring, Firewall, etc. Another critical area for SDN to succeed is to intelligently use the SDN potential & derive the more efficient & sometimes completely new tools & products. At Calsoft, we are building a complete SDN Toolset which will is innovative & enables the complex problems to be solved at a click of a button. Here are a couple of samples. NW Tracer – While designing & expanding a NW, IT admins have to take care of multiple things into account. What would be the latency of my server from different clients which are distributed across the NW, how does a packet change while flowing through the NW from one end to another, etc. ? Post deployment, debugging NW issues becomes another pain point. Our smart SDN-based app allows easy detection of all ...

What SDN means: What does software defined networking mean.....? How it is different than the traditional networks. In SDN network the packets are free from the traditional rules and topology and constrictions, a packet can do whatever is best for them in a programmatic way, that means its software defined, because basically the network is working like an application. Essentially what SDN is, it’s about moving the intelligence of the network - the core network or routers and centralize that in a controller which can then be virtualized. So we think about how we build our networks today, that essentially have not really changed over the last 20 years. We got switches, we got routers, we got firewalls and we use these network elements to manager the traffic control within the network and each one of those network element has certain amount of intelligence built into the hardware. The idea of SDN is that we take the intelligence from this hardware and move higher up in the network...