Microsoft Says “SDN Goes Mainstream” in Windows Server 2019 – Virtualization Review

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Microsoft announces that “SDN is going mainstream” in Windows Server 2019

Highlighting the top 10 networking features of the upcoming Windows Server 2019, Microsoft claimed that software-defined networking (SDN) has become mainstream.

The emerging open standards-based, vendor-neutral virtualization architecture has disrupted the proprietary networking industry with its software-centric approach that seeks to deliver benefits such as programmability, centralized management, and agility.

As it has grown from its early roots in academic exercises to proof-of-concept test labs to adoption by giants, carriers, service providers and carriers web-scale telecommunications, it has increasingly infiltrated the enterprise, and Microsoft is continuing this migration into its flagship server operating system.

“If you’ve ever deployed software-defined networking (SDN), you know that it provides great power, but is historically difficult to deploy,” Microsoft said in an Aug. 8 blog post that ranked the SDN ranked 7th on its top 10 list. networking features in the server operating system. “Now with Windows Server 2019, it’s easy to deploy and manage with a new deployment UI and Windows Admin Center extension that will allow anyone to harness the power of SDN.”

The company said SDN is a key part of its overall software-defined data center (SDDC) offerings.

These include the Hyper-V hypervisor which provides the virtualization platform supporting networking and storage, security technologies, and more. Microsoft’s SDDC initiative – itself aligned with the Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) program – provides “software-based networking functions such as virtual networking with switching, routing, firewalls with micro- segmentation, third-party devices, and load balancing, all virtualized and highly optimized for availability and performance.”

Additionally, while Microsoft’s touted SDN benefits are built into Windows Server 2019, the company also said SDN improvements are more immediately available in Windows Server 2016.

The Windows Networking post describes how this is possible by detailing the steps companies must take to configure their physical networks to support its SDN technologies, which can be deployed with SDN Express and then managed through Windows Admin Center.

“You can get SDN Express today from the Microsoft SDN repository on GitHub,” the post reads. “Just download the SDN repository, navigate to SDNExpress/scripts, and run the SDNExpress.ps1 file from a Windows Server 2016 or 2019 computer. It will walk you through the process.”

More information is available in this article published by our sister site, RedmondMag.com.