Speaking before a group of developer professionals today, Pica8 CEO and Co-Founder James Liao said he believes the commoditization of networking hardware has set the stage for the industry to drive value through software defined networking (SDN).

Speaking as part of the “Tech Talk” lecture series at Hacker Dojo, a non-profit community center comprised of developer professionals, Liao said that he believes open, SDN solutions will help managers transition data centers into more nimble, cost-effective infrastructures.

“Similar to the server world, the networking industry is increasingly becoming commoditized. In response, data center managers are actively exploring more open, hardware-independent switching platforms that be customized to be more responsive to changing conditions and less costly to manage,” said Liao.

When pressed on how he thought the industry should respond, Liao replied that true SDN approaches were needed.

“I believe the market is receptive to decoupling the software from the hardware and in essence making an app out of network switching,” said Liao. “This is going to happen fast because when you leverage low-cost hardware with high-value-added software, you will see open platforms that enable innovation, create a migration path to SDN and solve real world problems.”

About Pica8, Inc.

Pica8 is fulfilling the promise of true software defined networking (SDN) by providing the world’s first open, hardware-independent switching operating system. Pica8’s solutions completely transform the data center by decoupling hardware from software. This new approach provides greater flexibility and adaptability, all while driving down implementation- and management-related costs of cloud and virtualized applications. For more information, visit www.pica8.com.