Introduction to network virtualization

Network virtualization is one of the most widely discussed topics in the recent past in the networking industry. To understand network virtualization better, think of server virtualization wherein the physical infrastructures are logically segregated into multiple virtual devices, each assigning to different containers for performing its workload. Similar to server virtualization, there is a requirement to virtualize the networking layer that provides connectivity for different virtual machines/containers.

As in server virtualization, wherein the customer will have full access to the virtualized server infrastructure, customers may also want to virtualize the networking infrastructure to secure data traffic between their VMs or containers. They don't want others to expose the data exchange that is happening between their applications to other customers' VMs or containers.

Network virtualization as a concept is not new to the networking world. Network...