The complexity and increase cyber risk of SDN appeared to outweigh benefits for building automation and industrial manufacturing control & automation networking.
SDN creates a high level of flexibility to quickly change network configuration with a large distributed software framework centrally controlled and the facility to dynamical alter the network based on changing workload distribution requirements in realtime. This is particularly important in large distributed cloud applications such as Google. These are not challenges found in industrial manufacturing and process facility control & automation networking.
Drawbacks & Challenges
– Single point of failure – The centralized controller, which is the core of an SDN, is also its biggest vulnerability.
– Expanded attack surface: By separating the control and data planes, SDN introduces new potential vulnerabilities at the interfaces between these layers.
– Controller compromise: If an attacker gains control of the central controller, they can compromise or manipulate the entire network.
– Network-wide disruption: A failure or overload of the central controller could bring all network operations to a halt, causing cascading outages across the network.
– Latency issues: The centralized design can also introduce performance issues, industrial manufacturing and process facility control & automation success requires predictable and consistent performance.
– Organizations may need to make fundamental changes to their entire network infrastructure, which can be costly and disruptive.
– Lack of consistent standards means that different SDN products and solutions may not be fully interoperable, which can limit an organization’s options and flexibility. This may also create vendor lock-in.
Certainly open to other thoughts, information and insights.
Bill Lydon , Digital Manufacturing Transformation Consultant
