Can we squeeze one more expert onto our blog today? Of course! Mike Thompson will also be speaking this Friday at The Future of the Internet 2014: Defining Software Defined Networks.

Mike Thompson is in the Office of the CTO and is the Director of Architecture and Engineering for Application Delivery, Cloud and Security for A10 Networks. His career starting in 1996 has been primarily focused on automation, application delivery and security. As the lead developer for 3rd party integration and OpenStack for A10 Networks, he has contributed to the service VM, service chaining and service insertion blueprints and working groups. Mike was part of the A10’s team that assisted Microsoft as part of the Citadel and Zero Access botnet takedown. Mike’s passion for DevOps grew in 2003 as the Sr. Architect for a large web hosting company. His team was responsible for the development, security and automation of the mass virtual hosting and datacenter environments that hosted 500,000 websites. The power of automation allowed his team to remain small… 3 people.

Here’s what Mike had to say about SDN and the future of networking:

What is SDN?

Software Defined Networking is the consumption of network resources and topology in an automated fashion as to abstract the consumer from the physical infrastructure. This is done through various techniques including API’s, Encapsulation, Network Function Virtualization and Security/Policy inheritance.

Why are you excited about SDN?

Most endusers do not have an understanding of networking so why should they be held up by it? The essence of SDN is to remove networking out the equation when provisioning applications and services. SDN is not a new concept as many companies have been automating network configuration and architecture for a long time. What is new and interesting is the new methods of encapsulation, layer 2 scalability and the commoditization of automation associated with the network, and standardization of API’s.

How does the network of the future differ from today’s?

This depends on the vantage point of the consumer or provider.

From the consumers perspective allocation of network resources changes dramatically for one primary reason, the consume does not need to rely on another department or organization for connectivity. One massive leap ahead is the data and information located in the network that can be leveraged by the application. The future will enable new integration patterns and collaboration techniques within the application deliver network. This can lead to further enhancements associated with right scaling the infrastructure.

From the perspective of the provider the sky is the limits when the offerings become API driven. The provider can extend a portfolio offering in ways that were not possible before. The provider will be able to reduce or reassign resources the allow the companies primary mission or business logic to be executed because of the improved efficiencies.

Join us at The Future of the Internet 2014: Defining Software Defined Networks to continue this conversation in person, and with a multitude of additional experts – register now!