HP has announced the “industry’s first” open-standards-based software-defined network (SDN) technologies to span infrastructure, control software and application layers with a “single control plane” that enables enterprises and cloud providers to simplify and maximize agility across data center, campus and branch networks.

“To solve the challenges created by legacy networks, organizations need the ability to automate the network from end to end by leveraging SDN to abstract the control plane from the physical infrastructure,” said Joe Skorupa, VP and distinguished analyst, Gartner.

“For maximum performance, utilization and simplicity, customers must ensure that there is a suite of SDN technologies across the entire network — from the hardware infrastructure to the control plane to the applications, and also from the data center to the desktop — in order to move beyond today’s complexities and improve business agility across the enterprise.”

As companies move to cloud and other computing environments, manual configuration of networks through command-line interface (CLI) coding has proven to be error prone, as well as time and resource intensive.

SDN overlay-point products offer a centralized control plane, but fall short by not enabling automated configuration of network infrastructure or providing SDN applications to roll out new services for campus and branch networks.

This incomplete approach creates complexity and unnecessary manual coding requirements.

The new HP technologies cover all layers by including an SDN controller, and SDN applications, services and solutions that further strengthen HP’s Virtual Application Networks strategy. As a result, clients can achieve the full potential of SDN technologies.

“In the cloud era, clients need a single point of control for the entire network, which enables them to deploy any application or service directly to the user within minutes,” said Fawwaz Qadan, networking director, HP Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa.