HP Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN Controller Software provides a unified control point in an OpenFlow-enabled network, simplifying management, provisioning, and orchestration. This enables delivery of a new generation of application-based network services and provides open application program interfaces (APIs) that allow third-party developers to deliver innovative solutions to dynamically link business requirements to network infrastructure via either custom Java programs or general-purpose RESTful control interfaces. HP VAN SDN Controller Software is designed to operate in campus, data center, or service provider environments.

In the Software Defined Networking (SDN) architecture, the control and data planes of the network are decoupled from each other, centralizing network intelligence and abstracting the underlying network infrastructure from applications. VAN SDN Controller software directly provisions physical and virtual switches under its control via the industry-standard OpenFlow protocol. Network ports, links, and topologies are all directly visible, enabling centralized policy administration and more effective path selection based on a dynamic, global view of the network. This dramatically simplifies the orchestration of multi-tenant environments and the enforcement of network policy for both mobile clients and servers.

With SDN, customers in all industries can develop applications specific to their business requirements. SDN concepts are already in use in cloud data center networks, leveraging technologies such as OpenStack. SDN has demonstrated the ability to provide campus administrators with the dynamic network security and QoS provisioning required in a BYOD environment. Service providers are evaluating SDN for service chaining to support network functions virtualization. HP Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN Controller Software provides a production-quality platform for the delivery of a broad range of network innovations.