10 Next-Gen Networking Startups Ripe For The Plucking

Big Switch Networks

CEO: Guido Appenzeller

Other than Nicira, Big Switch Networks is probably the best known and best marketed of the emerging class of SDN startups, having thrown its support with the OpenFlow protocol and attracted some big name executives to its ranks as it prepares for a commercial version of Floodlight, its controller software.

Most industry pundits agree that Big Switch will find a home with one of the industry's tier-one players, and speculation seems to have settled on IBM as a potential acquirer, given IBM's stepped up focus on data center convergence and the work it's done with Big Switch already around projects like IBM's Open Data Center Interoperable Network (ODIN).