OpenDaylight Project Named Gartner Cool Vendor for 2015

SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2015 – The OpenDaylight Project, a community-led and industry-supported open source framework to advance Software-Defined Networking (SDN), was named a 2015 Cool Vendor by Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company.

Gartner Research Director Andrew Lerner says that to be named "cool" means the ability for a networking organization to solve customer challenges in new and innovative ways. He's written before about how OpenDaylight is “quickly evolving into something formidable with good potential for mainstream relevancy” and calls this out again as a key reason for selecting OpenDaylight as a 2015 Cool Vendor.

Says Lerner, “ODL is cool because it has the potential to serve as an industry rallying point to promote multi-vendor interoperability and spur market innovation. Along these lines, the project is currently working to define an SDN controller northbound API, which could serve as the de-facto industry standard, which the market desperately needs. This potential emergence of an open networking eco-system has several long-term advantages for enterprise network designers” which are detailed in Gartner’s full report (fee based).

In April, OpenDaylight celebrated its two-year birthday and recently blogged about the progress that the community and industry-at-large has made toward the implementation of an open, common SDN and NFV platform.

“Gartner's endorsement of ODL as a Cool Vendor is another testament to the momentum and interest we continue to see for ODL and the open ecosystem,” said Neela Jacques, OpenDaylight executive director. “The honor belongs to everyone who has contributed to the codebase, participated in discussions or tested ODL in their networks in the past two years. All of us working together is what will bring SDN to the mainstream.”

Download the Gartner 2015 Cool Vendor in Enterprise Networking report (fee based).

About the OpenDaylight Project

The OpenDaylight Project is a collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for a more transparent approach that fosters new innovation and reduces risk. Founded by industry leaders and open to all, the OpenDaylight community is developing a common, open SDN framework consisting of code and blueprints. Get involved: www.opendaylight.org.

OpenDaylight is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org

 

Additional Resources

###

Media Inquires
Melissa Logan
OpenDaylight Project
pr@opendaylight.org

Gartner Cool Vendor Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

All statements in this report attributable to Gartner represent Andrew Lerner’s interpretation of data, research opinion or viewpoints published as part of a syndicated subscription service by Gartner, Inc., and have not been reviewed by Gartner. Each Gartner publication speaks as of its original publication date (and not as of the date of this 2015 Cool Vendor report). The opinions expressed in Gartner publications are not representations of fact, and are subject to change without notice.