At a forum held for developer professionals today, Pica8 chief architect David Liu demonstrated an open production-ready software defined networking (SDN) platform that enables the open source community to develop specific applications, such as multi-path network optimization or firewalls.

Speaking as part of the “Tech Talk” lecture series at Hacker Dojo, a non-profit community center comprised of developer professionals, Liu gave a primer on what developers need to know help users configure Pica8’s open switches to work in various application scenarios. In particular, integration of the open switch with OVS—making it an Open OVS Switch and then building an interface to a RYU OpenFlow controller. Additionally, Liu showed how to regulate flow configuration between the RYU open flow controller and the OVS interaction.

“SDN and open networking will move from concepts to best practices once developers and businesses are able to see these practices in action and understand how they gain value and help manage costs,” said Liu. “I believe today’s demonstration was successful in giving a jump start to those interested in SDN by showing the types of virtual switches and controllers that can be used in production environments and how to configure the new and necessary devices and protocols.”

About Pica8, Inc.

Since 2009, Pica8 has been fulfilling the promise of true software defined networking (SDN) by providing the world’s first open, hardware-independent switching system. Pica8 open switches 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. Pica8 is a global company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.pica8.com.