With the focus of organizations rapidly shifting towards virtualization, and network functions being automated, it is certain that the role of network professionals is expected to change; however, not diminish. A network engineer familiar with managing network operations via a command line interface will have to learn new ways to perform mundane activities. Software defined networking is an approach to control network functions through software control, thus allowing a user to better manage the network. Software defined networking (SDN) promises to make network operations simpler along with extending network capabilities in virtualized space. Although SDN makes network operations simple for end user, it does not make network engineering simple, and organizations would always need their network engineers to add their knowledge to keep networks functioning smoothly. 

 

A leading market research and consulting firm Acumen Research and Consulting (ARC) projects the worldwide software defined networking (SDN) market to witness the growth of 47% during the period from 2016 to 2022. According to the Analysts at ARC, the major factors responsible for this stupendous growth of SDN include generation of huge amount of data through social media and complex data traffic patterns, growing cloud computing services, and need for advanced network infrastructure to manage and optimize this data. With the continuously growing popularity and adoption of SDN technology by organizations, these organizations will need to carefully explore the impact these solutions on internal staff and operations.