Today’s growing businesses need instant application deployments and deliveries at a much higher speed. While it is a major challenge for IT administrators, Software Defined Networking (SDN) has helped organizations to achieve this goal with the help of automation tools. SDN helps businesses to achieve flexibility and scalability with the platform that can efficiently handle the demanding network needs of present and future growth. SDN has made deployments of applications and business servers more speedy and agile. Cloud architectures are able to deliver automated, on demand application delivery and mobility on a scale required by SDN. SDN helps enhance the benefits of Data Center virtualization by increasing resource utilization and flexibility, thus reducing the overhead and infrastructure costs. SDN has a great contribution in converging management network and applications into an extensible and centralized orchestration platform, that can perform automation tasks of provisioning and configuring the entire infrastructure. This assists businesses in building a modern infrastructure, that can fulfil the demand of delivering new applications and services at a much faster pace than possible now.

With the legacy architectures and operating models, current Data Centers are finding it difficult to scale as per the required demands of today’s bandwidth hungry mobile data applications and consequent huge increase in traffic volume. Disaggregated virtual Data Centers and the multi-tenancy trend is creating further challenge in application deployments, delivery and provisioning. Operators need more capacity with the flexibility to allocate resources dynamically – to when and where they are needed most. Current demands need enhanced efficiency and networks that can dynamically adapt to the surroundings. The new SDN technology is the perfect solution for these problems. SDN by abstracting network elements, creates an open environment where network resources can be orchestrated to provide a fast, open, scalable and flexible network that is simple to manage. SDN solutions increase network efficiency by taking transformations from Application Layer and using that data to control network with increased application responsiveness.

SDN allows network administrators to have programmable, centralized control over the network traffic, without having actual access to physical network devices. It separates the control plane from the data plane and thus allowing external control of the network. Separation of the control plane and the data plane allows top level decisions to be made from management device with the knowledge of network, without having device centric configurations. By separating the control plane from the data plane, SDN makes the network, programmable and uses SDN controller to program switches, using industry standard protocol like OpenFlow.

Network orchestration and virtualization are the key to SDN that helps achieve flexibility. The most important goal of SDN is to implement flexible networks that can be provisioned dynamically. Network orchestration, network programmability, network virtualization and centralized control are the major factors that define SDN.

SDN and Network Orchestration

SDN is basically a mesh of technologies to control network hardware. Network devices have network operating systems which manage the internal device operations. SDN needs network operating systems to offer API that allows external software to configure the device. SDN applications use a network controller as a gateway, in order to access APIs on the devices. OpenDaylight is the most popular and widely available gateway. The consumption of the APIs offered by devices, enable the offering of end-to-end configuration services across many network devices. Orchestration can be described as the use of automation to provide services, by using applications that drive the network. Orchestration is the most important factor in Software defined network.

SDN and Network Virtualization:

IT operators are finding that network performance could be a bottleneck to deliver speed, agility and bandwidth that is required for today’s modern application. SDN and Network virtualization, along with other solutions like 10Gigabit Ethernet and Ethernet fabrics, are amongst the technologies that can efficiently address the problem of network performance and provide agility. Data Centers are required to handle more data and transactions resulting in network growth and expansions, which add significant complexity in IT provisioning and management. Network virtualization and SDN provide a solution to network architectures that they can use to design models that efficiently cater to demands of the business critical applications.

Implementing Network virtualization with SDN, IT operators can add flexibility and scalability to current network management. SDN based network virtualization decouples virtual network from the physical network. Today businesses demand quick virtual network deployments with diverse requirements and need most of the network functions to be automated. There are numerous ways network virtualization can be defined in SDN.

How SDN provide network flexibility and Scale?

Software defined networks provide flexibility to configure, secure, manage and optimize network resources using automated SDN programs. APIs offered by network systems of devices, facilitate the implementation of common network services such as routing, security, access control, multicast, bandwidth management, storage optimization, energy usage and allows policy managements. SDN provides much flexibility that allows network programming and management at a scale which traditional networks failed to provide. SDN, by decoupling Control and Data planes result in advantages such as high flexibility, programmability and a centralized network view. SDN is considered to be a solution to provide a flexible and scalable architecture. SDN offers higher opportunity for programmability, network control, automation and thus allows network operators to build highly scalable and flexible network, that quickly adaptable to changing business needs. It provides flexibility with new network capability and services that does not require to configure individual devices or does not need to wait for vendor releases. Centralized control and management of network devices improve automation and management. Centralized and automated management of network devices result in fewer configuration errors and increased network reliability and security.

SDN is the solution for future networks to become significantly intelligent, scalable and flexible. With the help of SDN, network virtualization and network orchestration, it offers network architects an opportunity to provide a truly innovative, flexible and scalable network solution, that will be more efficient and cost effective.

Growing your business with existing customers is the cornerstone of sustained success. It was observed among the top 5 companies in IT services, the ones which did a better job of growing existing customers, outperformed their peer group in overall business growth and profitability consistently over a 10 year period. With the initial investments in customer acquisition, building relationships & setting up infrastructure, incremental business from existing clients is significantly more profitable than winning new clients, as it requires incurring all the initial costs again. This is the reason why your cable, phone or security provider will reduce prices for you rather than have you leave for a competitor.

Deliver the first experience well: This is the time to build relationships. Your client is getting the first experience with you at a time when exit barriers are low. The quality of this initial experience can create significant stickiness for the future. Failure can not only shut future doors for you, but also open the door for competitors. Invest overtime, effort to engage and make a success of this first experience.
Grow first in your existing program: If the experience has been good, existing relationships are significantly easier to leverage compared to building new ones. Focus your near term growth plans on the existing area, in which you are already engaged.
Dominate your footprint: Be the key player and the trusted partner in your current area of engagement. Fractional players are easy to dislodge. Focus, perform and grow in the technology, process, or business area in which you are already engaged. Be the partner who your client turns to and one who is integral to their success. The more critical you are to their program, the more your clients are vested in making you successful, as their success is intricately linked to yours.
Make your client a reference: Existing clients can be great sponsors, helping you grow business in other areas within their company. To enable that, educate your referrer on what you want to sell, to whom, and why. This will let them understand your proposition and speak with conviction, should they choose to refer you. Win the confidence of your referrer first. Make him your salesman!
Create your budgets: Budgets, especially the “run the business” areas, are constantly squeezed to free up resources for funding new initiatives. Take the lead and drive productivity in your existing area, freeing up funds for your client. While it may cannibalize your existing business, it will significantly raise your standing. It will position you as a partner who is thinking of the client’s goals and as a preferred partner for opportunities in new areas of spend.
Upsell and drive value: The essence of upsell is to make a bigger impact on your client’s business goals. Understand the goals of your client and what makes a difference to their business. As you build that knowledge, repurpose your skills and deliverables, to deliver a bigger impact to your client’s G&O’s and business.
Cross sell contiguously first: Your reputation and track record are most relevant in the area where you are already performing well. It will carry most weight in the adjacent process or technology streams. If you have done a great job with ERP systems, aim to extend into bespoke development or maintenance. Chances are the buyers are likely to be connected and your track record in an adjacent technology will lend credibility. It will take longer to make the leap into say BPO or infrastructure management, even if you have strong company credentials there. The buyers and the work there are very different from the applications side work in which you have a good reputation. First aim to grow contiguous to where you have demonstrated success and spread systematically.
Engage actively and be a good listener: Engage actively with your clients. Solicit opportunities to learn about their businesses. Get feedback about your performance and standing as well as insights into new opportunities. The more you listen, the more you will learn and identify opportunities to get better and new areas to grow in.
Ensure continuous communication: You are your best spokesperson. Regularly let your key stakeholders know what you have accomplished. Look for forums beyond your existing touch points and message to adjacent and senior levels as well. Each of them can be sponsors, buyers or influencers in the future.
Crises are opportunities: In the course of any relationship, things may go wrong. All mature buyers understand that. What’s important is how you deal with the crisis. Be responsive, constructive, engaged and focused on resolutions and results. If anything, take on greater ownership of than you are contractually obligated to. These are great opportunities to demonstrate that you stand by your clients when the chips are down.
Keep your eye on the ball: However successful you are with a client, that success has to be earned every day. Keep your eye on the ball and ensure that existing programs and relationships get focus and you deliver consistently.
There is always room to grow: Even if you have a dominant share of business with your client, there are opportunities to grow. Technologies change, processes change, regulations change, markets change, M&A’s and divestments happen. Your client is an organic, living, breathing entity and change is ongoing. Each change creates new opportunities to engage and grow.

In closing…
Growing with existing clients is the secret sauce of the most successful companies. It is also the most profitable avenue for growth. To ensure success with your clients, focus on delivering to your promise and making them your references. Actively engage to understand where your client’s business priorities lie and how you can help in successful outcomes. Grow in your existing engagement first and then into contiguous areas. A track record of performance and constructive engagement opens up new avenues for growth in other parts of the business, new areas of spend, and as your client transforms their business.