Cloud computing, largely enabled by server virtualization, has transformed the IT landscape for enterprises large and small. Long gone are the days when all IT applications were run on dedicated hardware in company data centres. This scenario has been replaced to a large extent with virtualization: virtual machines are launched and shutdown as required by IT workloads, greatly increasing hardware utilization and enabling organizations to create private cloud computing environments and deploy IT as a service.

A virtualized computing environment is in constant flux: virtual machines are brought up and shut down, applications move between physical servers. Until recently data center networks were not similarly fluid, configurations were rigid and could only be changed manually.

Thanks to the development of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), the network can be configured to optimize links between servers running applications, storage and the external connections to the data center.