What is a fundamental goal of Software-Defined Networking (SDN)?

A fundamental goal of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is to allow for more flexible network management. SDN achieves this by decoupling the control plane (which makes decisions about traffic) from the data plane (which forwards traffic to its destination). This separation facilitates centralized control over the network, allowing administrators to adjust traffic flows and configure network resources programmatically, often through software interfaces. This programmability enables greater agility and responsiveness to changing network demands, which is essential for modern dynamic environments such as cloud computing.

While simplifying physical network hardware, enhancing application performance, and reducing cloud service costs may be benefits or related outcomes of an SDN implementation, the primary focus of SDN is on flexibility and the ability to manage networks more efficiently and dynamically. This agility is crucial in optimizing resource allocation and ensuring that networks can adapt to various applications and workloads.