Virtualization just doesn't stop there, it keeps evolving and expanding its usage into many fields of computing industry.

From software based hardware or virtual hardware or virtual machine (as we called it in previous lesson), now expand to virtual network, virtual storage, and virtual X eventually (where X is many many thing).

Those virtual X things we now call it Software-Defined X

• Virtual networking => Software-Defined Networking (SDN) (ref link to wikipidia)
• Virtual storage => Software-Defined Storage (SDS)
• Virtual data center => Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC)
• and many more Software-Defined things, so I simply call them Software Defined X ..

Let's see a little more details of SDN as an example

• Vmware has its own virtual switch technology, and use extensively in there product like Vmware workstation, Vmware vSphere product line.
• MS has its own virtual switch technology as well, and use a lot in Hyper-v product line.
• Open vSwitch: open-source virtual switch, pack with a lot of advance features (Note: 1. show link to open-vswitch website 2. give demo of open-vswitch support on Proxmox 3. show QoS feature)
• Cisco Nexus 1000V, I cannot show you here
• Note: I just want to mention Cisco also has many virtual products, multiple virtual switches, virtual routers and virtual firewall like ASAv (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/virtual-adaptive-security-appliance-firewall/index.html)
• Those switches are not real, but once we plug the VM into one of those vswitch, Windows or Linux will see it as if they are real switch, and send/receive network traffic through it as if they are real switch.
• This SDN makes network design different from before. Let me show you one of network design text book back in 2004 when I studied network design, I can tell you most of knowledge and consider best practice are no longer valid.

This is just one example of Software Defined X, which already impact the way we design modern IT system, if we need to integrate more than one software defined technology into the system design, we will need whole new knowledge and skills.