Monetizing SDN: Emerging Business Models

Abstract

The networks have become critical component of infrastructure in society, and have evolved over decades, bringing in the complexities with them. However, the new requirements for the networks, such as data center networking, cloud computing, L4+ network services, and so on are finding the traditional networking approaches as huge barriers. The networks are bound to witness disruptive changes in overcoming these barriers. At this juncture, SDN is emerging and is seen as a way to open up the closed network for innovation. SDN has now become reality and the speculation has ended, with many leading organizations strategising around SDN. The current vertically integrated closed telecom networks have opened up with SDN, transforming their business models and bringing in the new customers. The time is ripe, hence, for formulating the new business opportunities. The objective of this paper is to explore the ways to monetize SDN and formulate business models, through the findings by adopting Secondary Research methodology, by exploring SDN business ecosystem, driving factors and value chain. It also discusses the suitable business models that organizations could take forward, by discussing the applicability of business models in other domains to network domain, and formulating business models with Open source.

Keywords: SDN, NFV, Business Models, Open Source, Value Chain, Business Drivers

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