An Interview with Curt Beckmann of Brocade

In this podcast I interviewed Curt Beckmann, Principal Architect, Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Brocade. Curt is extremely influential in the Open Networking Foundation and spends a lot of time working with groups creating new, more agile network standards. A software defined networking (SDN) and cloud evangelist, Curt and I got into some of the nitty-gritty of how SDN and cloud can make agencies more agile and efficient, save money, and better meet future challenges. Curt discussed how networking has gone from a computing bottleneck into a computing enabler, as SDN decouples data from the instructions. This allows for enhanced computing flexibility. Curt discussed what he sees as some of the value adds of public, private and hybrid clouds, and the ways that they can help agencies with tough computing problems. One value he sees in using hosted cloud services is gaining evolutionary steps in software and hardware, without having to pay for upgrades. He also believes that SDN and cloud architecture offers an OPEX savings which then can be re-invested in better service and additional delivered capabilities. He sees the cloud as a way to provide shared services with incremental costs and minimal upfront investments. Lastly we discussed some myths that surround SDN, including costs, what the OpenFlow capability means and whether or not the network stack should resemble the compute stack. CTOvision Podcasts are available in iTunes and via our RSS feeds for listening in your favorite device. Please subscribe for content while on the go.