Intel IT: Software-Defined Networking
Software-defined networking (SDN) is helping Intel IT keep up with Intel’s business expansion. We regularly experience an annual 25% increase in demand for data center network capacity. Furthermore, business pressures necessitate that new capacity be operational within 24 hours. As early as 2014, we acknowledged the potential of SDN to help address these challenges. After evaluating the components and architectures of SDN, we opted for an open, standards-based architecture rather than a supplier-centric solution. As our SDN architecture has evolved, we have established a standardized and scalable data center network architecture that extensively uses automation. The open interface provides the flexibility to integrate additional business-driven automation, enabling us to meet our growth objective and timeline requirements.
Our network architecture strategy relies on five pillars:
- Scalability through standardization. We maintain compliancy with our standards for hardware, OS, device roles, topology, configurations, and solutions to enable automation and rapid scalability at large data centers.
- Programmability. This allows our workforce to adapt to significant growth in network scale with improved speed. It also facilitates full lifecycle provisioning of network infrastructure from Day 0 to end of life.
- Security. We have the capability to segment the network using a common infrastructure to support various use cases and enhance data center security.
- Resiliency. Built-in network resiliency helps ensure the continuous operation of network functionality, facilitates rapid recovery, and maintains performance even in compromised conditions.
- Supportability. We strive to be sure the network maintains its designed level of performance and availability of the network. Adhering to standards facilitates troubleshooting. Over the past five years, we have migrated the majority of our data centers to a new SDN architecture that employs a leaf-spine underlay combined with overlay networks. By utilizing Industry-standard components and protocols, we have significantly improved network delivery times while reducing the need for human resources, thereby enhancing overall efficiency. Additionally, we have increased the stability and reliability of the network and consolidated multiple dedicated customer networks onto a common infrastructure that’s integrated with enhanced security controls.