Collaborative open source initiative, the OpenDaylight Project, has announced Cyan, Huawei, Inocybe Technologies, Plexxi and Radware as new members to help further the development of open source SDN.

Founded by the Linux Foundation with support from Arista Networks, Big Switch Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Ericsson, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, NEC, Nuage Networks, PLUMgrid, Red Hat and VMware, OpenDaylight is committed to developing a common and open SDN platform on which developers can build commercial products and technologies.

The idea is that, as the industry moves toward widespread adoption of SDN, an open reference framework for programmability and control is needed and each new member will be using OpenDaylight to deliver enhancements to products and services and provide additional value to their customers.

“We’re at an important inflection point in the computing industry, where SDN is poised to change the way we think about networking and the way that IT infrastructure is put together,” said Inder Gopal, board chair for OpenDaylight. “The OpenDaylight Project is playing a key role in this shift and, with today’s new members and contributors from throughout the community, is well positioned to accelerate, advance and innovate SDN.”

Software Defined Networks for telecos are the next big thing and it was evident at MWC in February that anyone who’s anyone is on the bandwagon. But the movement comes at the right time, with the move to LTE driving a need for greater network flexibility, scalability and cost performance. The nature of the evolution is illustrated by the list of main stakeholders; IT vendors are now entering the telecoms market since SDN (or virtualisation) is a concept widely used in the IT market.

Inocybe Technologies specialises in (ICT) management with a unified virtual infrastructure platform, and according to Mathieu Lemay, chief executive officer at the company, “SDN will become the de facto standard for IT networking, but only if the industry works together to make it simple, fast and affordable for any organization to create a robust, global and scalable infrastructure. OpenDaylight takes a strong step in this direction by meeting new customer demands through a collective, industry effort that will transform the way vendors and customers manage networks.”