OpenDaylight Developer Spotlight: Hugo Trippaers

OpenDaylight is an open source project and open to all. Developers can contribute at the individual level just like any other open source project. This blog series highlights the people who are collaborating to create the future of Software Defined-Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

Hugo Trippaers currently works as a mission critical engineer for Schuberg Philis with 20 years of IT experience in roles ranging from network architect to software developer. Within every role, Hugo had an eye for open source projects and has often been contributing code and knowledge. In his current position he is spending most of his time writing code for open source projects.

How did you get involved with OpenDaylight? What is your background?

I got involved with SDN when one of my colleagues asked me to look at integrating Nicira NVP with Apache CloudStack (ACS). When I said yes, I got on a rollercoaster ride that took me to the Nicira offices in Palo Alto where I was able to meet with Martin Casado and the other folks at Nicira. That really got me hooked on the whole concept of SDN, and I integrated SDN support into Apache CloudStack. Since that day I’ve been deeply involved with the Apache CloudStack (ACS) community where I am one of the members of the Project Management Committee. My goal for ACS is to make sure that Apache CloudStack supports as many SDN solutions as possible. When I learned of the OpenDaylight Project I knew I wanted to have support for that as well. After e-meeting with Brent Salisbury and Madhu Venugopal on how to do the integration, I got really interested in the internals of OpenDaylight and started to help out where I could.

What projects are you working on for OpenDaylight? Any new developments to share?

My main focus is the Open vSwitch database plugin (OVSDB). This project is instrumental in getting overlay-based network virtualization supported using Open vSwitch, which is what I wanted to support in Apache CloudStack. As a company, we are using this technology on a daily basis, so I have some practical experience that I can use to deal with real world scenarios.

I’ve been simultaneously working on two sides of the project. While working on the OVSDB project to get all the features supported that a cloud management system expects, I’ve also been working on the ACS side to get the integration plugin ready for the main branch. By being involved with the OVSDB project I could immediately discuss my challenges and develop solutions. For somebody writing an integration layer between two products it’s awesome to be able to tackle challenges on both ends at the same time.

What is the relationship of NFV to SDN and how do you see them working together?

SDN is an eye-opener for everybody involved in networking. Suddenly networking is no longer the domain of proprietary hardware-based solutions, but nowadays software can take care of a multitude of tasks. NFV, to me, is the logical next step in the evolution of SDN. With the layer 2 control and virtualization “fixed,” it’s time to work on the functions that the network provides on higher layers. When NFV becomes more prevalent, applications can start to take control of their environments. Say an application needs a load-balancer function. Today you need to configure one somewhere and hope it works with that application; in the future I would expect the application to request a load-balanced function with certain capabilities from the network using an API.

What is the biggest challenge facing networking today?

The rate of change in networking is very high at the moment. Whatever you knew yesterday might be obsolete knowledge tomorrow. Technology always moves fast in this day and age, but in networking the change is staggering. The emerging technologies in the networking arena allow people to rethink how they implement and use networking, but security technology and applications need to keep up the pace. We can’t allow our creativity to become a liability for established enterprises and their application landscapes. At some point in time we have to make sure that everybody catches-up to the current state of networking technology.

From your perspective, what are the major benefits of making OpenDaylight an open source project?

OpenDaylight is set to play a role together with cloud management systems in orchestrating hardware and turning that into an infrastructure-as-a-service. Orchestration means taking a lot of diverse components and making them sing and dance together. Tasks like this can only be achieved if specialists from all over the place can participate. I think making OpenDaylight open source provides an opportunity for people with various interests in networking technology, from suppliers to users, to work together and make a product that suits their needs.

What is the best piece of developer advice you’ve ever received?

“To assume is to make an ass of you and me.” I think that’s the best advice I’ve ever had. If I find myself thinking that I “assume” something like a parameter having a certain value, I write a piece of code to deal with situations where it isn’t.