Hewlett-Packard (HP) today delivered its much vaunted Software Defined Networking (SDN) App Store, first announced a year ago, adding detail on how third parties will create the apps, and users can obtain them.

SDN abstracts network functions so they can be run on general purpose network hardware. HP's strategy includes an App Store where users can find functions for security or network performance, that can be installed across their networks. HP will provide some apps, while others will be from third parties.

Some will effectively replace functions otherwise delivered on specialised hardware appliances, providing distributed firewalls and services like network optimization. All of them run on HP's Virtual Application Networks (VAN) SDN Controller, and HP has provided a software development kit (SDK) for app creators.

A year on from the announcement, the controller has been downloaded 3,000 times, and the SDK mopre than 5,000 times. And now HP is finally making the App Store available to US customers on Oct. 1. Applications can be bought through various options for purchase at varied pricing options.

The App Store will be providing what HP calls its ‘ecosystem partners’ (VARs and ISVs in the channel) with  a further layer of consultants and support services, who will help its customers drill down to the business benefits of SDN. Upon purchasing SDN-enabled architecture, customers will work with channel partners to determine the right SDN applications for their environment and will receive a discount code to be used in the HP SDN App Store.

Sounds like a challenge? Read on.

Ever increasing circles
How a further layer of resellers and consultants will help HP customers get the correct apps  quickly is a problem even HP accepts inserts an element of risk into its strategy.

Hamid Lalani, HP strategic alliances SDN ecosystem, said to DatacenterDynamics: “Our app store will radiate out in circles. The outer circle is our general community; the second circle  [consists] of partners and the inner circles will be our premium customers who will have full access to HP’s worldwide remote labs and OEM partnerships.”

Lalani admitted that this was a risky strategy for HP since it would rely, to a certain extent for some users, on getting good advice on the suitability of a (hopefully) growing number of SDN apps. He said: “We sell 95% through the channel. However this strategy is a risk. We intend to have resellers SDN certified but we still don’t know how much they will have to handle and how good they will be. But we are confident they and us will deliver.”

HP sees this ‘added value’ as a key differentiator between it and Dell. HP’s  thinking is that advice and ‘hand-holding’ will be necessary for the success of SDN in the data center and the enterprise and, in the words of one HP spokesperson at the NetEvents IT symposium: “Dell just provides a gateway”.  

HP calls this an ecosystem – but in reality it is a new channel strategy where it will have to train to a very high standard a new cadre of super-VARS and resellers who will have to provide a very high level of service and knowledge to vertical IT sectors already wary of much of the vendor ‘advice’ they currently obtain.  

As Lalani said: “If you have no shepherd to guide you, you have no path,  HP certification will help customers find both.” So the HP SDN App Store is a central international platform, and the new channel provides the shepherds that explain the new software-defined world.

Right now, the App Store contains eight applications, but the situation is clearly in flux as Lalani briefed DataCenterDynamics on a different app that is not on the current list. Active HoneyPot protects data centers, using SDN at the very edge of the network to identify and sandpit attackers, Lalani said. It allows attackers to carry on hacking while the app examines the attack, and then tells the data center manager who is attacking and where from, identifies the signature of the attack and tells the data center manager how to avoid it in future.

Apps from hardware and software vendors
The official list at the moment in cludees six applications from partners, as well as two from HP. Three of the partners are hardware appliance makers, who are migrating some of their functions into the SDN environment, while the other three are from software players already active in the SDN field.

The hardware trio are Blue Cat, F5 and KEMP.

- Blue Cat makes DNS and DHCP servers, and has put a DNS Director app in the Sore, which enforces DNS policies and IP address management.

 - F5's appliances cover multiple areas - it is offering an app called BIG DDoS Umbrella which implements network, application, DNS and SSL DDoS protection near the network edge.

 - And load-balancer maker KEMP has provided an adaptive load balancer app routes applications across the server and switching infrastructure in a data center.

The software makers jumping into the App Store are Guardicore, eCode and Real Status.

 - GuardiCore's Defense Suite provides network security for software defined data ceners, detecting and mitigating advanced persistent threats, malware propagation and insider attacks.

 - Ecode's evolve is an orchestrator for dynamic service provisioning with quality of service DDoS defense.
 - Real Status' Hyperglance is a hybrid cloud and SDN dashboard, for an interactive topology and management by administrators.

The two HP applications are Network Protector, which provides real-time security across OpenFlow-enabled network devices, and Network Optimizer for Microsoft Lync which pvovides network policy and quality of service to improve Luync users' experience.

The formal names of the Dantean circles of the HP's SDN App Store are:

 - The HP Circle, with applications built and tested exclusively by HP.
 - The Premium Circle, containing applications that are top sellers and jointly tested by HP and its partners.
 - The Partner Circle, encompassing applications that have been self-tested by HP partners and reviewed by HP.
 - The Community Circle, offering open-access and community-supported applications to demonstrate open source and concept SDN applications.