Extensible Network Platforms

Some of the more notable networking vendors have created quite the buzz around the extensibility of their network operating systems and availability of their software development tools (commonly and collectively known as Software Development Kits or SDKs). This scenario is the network equipment equivalent of the smartphone as a device, there only to deliver a service via an application to satisfy a users wants and needs. Manufacturers created the smartphone hardware and the operating system along with their smartphone SDKs and up springs an industry of applications developers. Now which is bigger, the platform business or the application business? One thing is certain, had companies not taken that approach, the smartphone would not be the device that it is (quite the understatement) and the associated application development industry… well, there wouldn’t be one. And, users? Using what? That is just one example of the power behind the open , extensible operating system approach.

Designers and developers of networking products have traditionally been a tight knit community of players producing closed architecture systems. It was, and to some extent still is, thought that these products are not candidates for third party development for a number of reasons, some good, some not so defensible. However, what has resulted is a system that although owned by the user, is entirely subject to the capabilities, limitations and priorities of the vendor. This in turn, causes network owner and users to bend their needs around the capabilities of the product, limit their services to those that can be delivered by a closed architecture operating system, wait extended periods of time for new features to be developed into the product and add more and more appliances/operating systems to the network to achieve any level of uniqueness. Most network system operators have learned to live with it…

Operating outside the norm, some networking platform vendors are starting to recognize that there is something to be said for opening up their operating system, in a controlled way, to feature implementation and custom application creation by a community of software development partners. This is a pretty powerful notion, in theory. Network system operators using these open system network products can now work with independent software vendors (ISVs) to accelerate feature implementation and/or create fully customized applications running on their networking (typically highly stable, redundant) platforms. This will allow network operators to offer unique services, reduce the number of adjunct appliances and management systems. This in turn, should reduce the most expensive aspect of running a network: operational cost!

With all of that said, the main point to be made is not that networking system vendors sell more product, when in fact they should. It is not that a bunch of ISVs will spring up and create an industry of third party networking software developers, yet there will be. The point isn’t even that network operators will run more effectively and efficiently. More to the point and the real crux of the issue; users of the resulting, focused and unique services will have a far more personalized and satisfying experience.

So time will tell if these seemingly visionary networking system vendors called this one correctly. If the other technology sectors are any indication, bets should go with a win for the open network system approach.