SDN's origins can be traced to a research collaboration between Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley that ultimately yielded the OpenFlow protocol in the 2008 timeframe.

When was the SDN created?

SDN technology emerged with a lot of hype around 2011 when it was introduced alongside the OpenFlow protocol. Since then, adoption has been relatively slow, especially among enterprises that have smaller networks and fewer resources.

How old is SDN?

SDN is now over 10 years old. When the history of SDN began, many people thought gleaming software-defined networks would replace tightly coupled, vertically integrated network products.