Software Defined Networks discusses the historical networking environment that gave rise to SDN, as well as the latest advances in SDN technology. The book gives you the state of the art knowledge needed for successful deployment of an SDN, including: - How to explain to the non-technical business decision makers in your organization the potential benefits, as well as the risks, in shifting parts of a network to the SDN model - How to make intelligent decisions about when to integrate SDN technologies in a network - How to decide if your organization should be developing its own SDN applications or looking to acquire these from an outside vendor - How to accelerate the ability to develop your own SDN application, be it entirely novel or a more efficient approach to a long-standing problem - Discusses the evolution of the switch platforms that enable SDN - Addresses when to integrate SDN technologies in a network - Provides an overview of sample SDN applications relevant to different industries - Includes practical examples of how to write SDN applications