Use Cases and Development of Software Defined Networks in OpenStack

With ubiquitous presence and perpetual growth of software applications and computing devices connected to the Internet, organizations and businesses are faced with increasing challenges in operating and maintaining technologies that support their IT infrastructure. Among the goals of technology management are cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, and secure management of information technologies, which are expected to produce maximum utility value. Virtualization has been proposed as a promising solution to the challenges facing today´s IT managers. From virtualized servers to virtualized networks to virtual data centers, various virtualized systems have been explored as means of easing IT operation challenges. One of the major benefits of virtualization is the possibility of building a network of virtual machines and storage infrastructure between the virtual data center and external physical networks. A data center involves a large number of networking devices such as switches, routers, and firewalls. With traditional networking, managing networks in data centers is a complex task due to the closed architecture and vertical integration among the networking devices. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a new architectural paradigm, enabling flexible and dynamic management of networks and associated services. This paper presents the benefits of virtualization in general, the advantages of adopting virtualization in data centers, a practical implementation of virtual data centers on OpenStack, and implementing SDN to manage networks in the virtual data center.