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Open Networking Foundation and ONUG Announce Industry Partnership to Empower Open Software-Defined Networking End Users

Collaborative relationship allows end users to contribute to the direction of the SDN movement, accelerating wider adoption of open SDN

PALO ALTO, Calif. and BOSTON, September 10, 2013 – The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of open Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and the Open Networking User Group (ONUG), a leading user-driven community focused on expediting the delivery of open networking solutions, today announced ONF as an ONUG Industry Partner, allowing the input from ONUG’s end-user community to help shape the future of the SDN movement.

This industry partnership reinforces both organizations’ commitments to openness and promoting the interests of SDN users. As part of this collaboration, ONF is supporting ONUG Fall 2013, a two-day event Oct. 29-30 in New York City. The event includes the ONUG Academy, a day of tutorials and workshops open to the industry, and the ONUG Conference, which will include user case studies, interactive business discussions, and networking opportunities for IT leaders. Rob Sherwood, chair of the ONF Architecture Framework Working Group, will present a tutorial on “Integrating OpenFlow® and OpenStack” at the ONUG Academy.

“ONUG is a community of IT executives learning and sharing open networking experiences with peers in a highly interactive environment,” said Nick Lippis, co-founder and vice chairman of the Open Networking User Group. “The ONUG Board is comprised of IT executives focused on both the business and technology drivers involved in deploying open networking solutions. This industry partnership further validates the importance of the user’s voice and offers a supportive community for ONUG members to openly and candidly discuss their market requirements with the industry at large.”

ONF is an end-user advocate encouraging the commercialization, implementation, and deployment of open SDN and the OpenFlow® protocol. ONF encourages innovation in the SDN space through a variety of opportunities and activities including the drafting of implementable standards, frameworks, and migration strategies; prototype demonstrations, interoperability experiments, and PlugFests; and product announcements and releases. The non-profit organization is composed of more than 100 member companies from some of the world’s most influential network operators, service providers, equipment manufacturers, end users, and more.

“ONF is pleased to be the first ONUG Industry Partner and increase dialogue with end users in the SDN movement,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “This collaborative relationship supports ONF’s commitment to accelerate global commercialization and deployment of SDN.”

About ONF
Launched in 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo!, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is a growing nonprofit organization with more than 100 members whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of open SDN. ONF promotes open SDN and OpenFlow® technologies and standards while fostering a vibrant market of products, services, applications, customers, and users. For further details visit the ONF website at: https://opennetworking.org.

About ONUG
ONUG is a user-driven community comprised of IT executives that are leveraging the power of their engineering and procurement to influence the pace and deployment of open networking solutions. The Board of Directors of ONUG is composed of IT leaders from Bank of America, CitiGroup, Fidelity Investments, GAP Inc., JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Nick Lippis of the Lippis Report and others. For more on ONUG, go to www.OpenNetworkingUserGroup.com or join our community on LinkedIn at Open Networking User Group or on Twitter @ONUG.