The document provides a summary of conversations on Twitter related to software defined networking (SDN). It analyzes over 16,000 tweets from over 8,000 members between August and October 2012. Key findings include that the top topics were SDN, OpenFlow, Nicira, and virtualization, and conversations differed between IT professionals who focused more on network virtualization, versus other groups. Conferences like VMworld also drove changes in discussion topics over time.

1. 1
TrendConnectTM
SDN Summary Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
November 1, 2012

2. 2
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN TrendConnect Vertical
IT
SDN Demographic Summary Professional
Data
12%
Scientist/
Targeted Analyst
Community 1%
Number of Members 8,279
Number Tweets 16,077
Media/
Number Keywords Entered 50 Press
Number Keywords Extracted 537 Unclassified 12%
35%
Number “IT Professionals” 1,029 Industry
“IT Professional” Incidence Rate High; 12% Analyst
1%
Start Date 17-August-2012
End Date 26-October-2012
“Reach” – Total Number Followers 33,841,044 Missing Potential IT
Average “Follower/Following” Ratio 27.8 Info 14%
Average “IT Pro” “Follower/Following” Ratio 4.2 18%
Marketing
3%
Swear- Recruiters/
Spam Student
1% Jobs
1% 2%

3. 3
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN IT Professionals by Title
Systems Administrator 254
Engineer 230
Architect 179
Developer/Programmer 170
Technologis/IT Pro. 123
DBA 37
CIO/VP 33
IT Director/Manager 9
Business Analyst 1

4. 4
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN Tweets
Top 40 Topics by Number of Tweets
SDN Community Tweets by Topic
1,553
• Tweets around verticals typically
software defined networking
openflow 1,190
nicira 1,112
virtualization
virtualization network
vmware 804
1,044
988 produce a “long tail” effect
software-defined networking
#openflow
693
658 ▫ The top 10 topics account for almost two-
software defined networks 533
virtual network 465 thirds of all topics
cisco sdn 454
vmworld
software defined network
419
382
▫ Over time, new interest areas will emerge
vyatta 356 and the order of topics will change to help
cisco one 313
hp sdn 313 identify new industry trends or changes in
#vmworld 280
software-defined networks 277 the market
sdn cloud 264
openstack 254
cloud software
software defined cloud
254
221 • Not surprisingly, references to SDN
hp networking 220
#vmware
#nicira
207
205
and (especially) products such as
vmware sdn 182
sdn switches
arista networks
174
171
Nicira and Openflow dominate the
sdnnetworking 160
virtual server 156 early market social media
network fabric 137
arista 114 conversation.
server virtualization 113
software-defined cloud 107
#vyatta
#arista
100
96 • SDN is also frequently discussed as
arista network 39
software-defined data center
software defined datacenter
35
28 part of a broader virtualization
conversation.

5. 5
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
SDN Conversations
Inc., 2012
Top 40 Topics by Type of Member
100%
software defined datacenter
software-defined data center
network fabric
• Conversation of
90% sdn switches interest differs
server virtualization
VMWorld virtual server significantly by type of
software-defined cloud
80% software defined cloud
Vyatta
sdn cloud
member.
Arista cloud software
70% Cisco
openstack
hp networking
hp sdn
VMware #vmworld
60% vmworld
#vyatta
Nicira vyatta
arista networks
50% arista network
#arista
arista
40% cisco sdn
Virtualization cisco one
vmware sdn
#vmware
30% vmware
#nicira
nicira
Openflow virtual network
20% virtualization network
virtualization
#openflow
openflow
10% “SDN” sdnnetworking
software-defined networking
software defined networks
0% software-defined networks
software defined network
IT Media/Press Analyst Potential IT Marketing
Professional

6. 6
Confidential and
SDN Conversations
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
Top 40 Topics by Type of Member
Normalized for “SDN”
100%
software defined datacenter • Conversation of interest differ
software-defined data center
90% network fabric significantly by type of member
sdn switches
server virtualization • IT Professionals tend to have
virtual server very different conversations
80% software-defined cloud
VMWorld
software defined cloud relative to the rest of the
Vyatta sdn cloud industry, at the moment focused
70% cloud software
Arista openstack on network virtualization.
hp networking Overall, the discussion of SDN
60% Cisco hp sdn
#vmworld gets a lot of pull through from
VMware vmworld general virtualization
50% #vyatta
vyatta conversations.
arista networks
Nicira arista network
40% #arista
arista
cisco sdn
30% cisco one
vmware sdn
Virtualization #vmware
20% vmware
#nicira
nicira
10% virtual network
virtualization network
Openflow virtualization
0% #openflow
openflow
IT Media/Press Analyst Potential IT Marketing
Professional

7. 7
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN Conversations: ITPros
Top 40 Topics by Month
100% hyper-v
virtual machine
• Conversations are
server virtualization
90% hyperv
also very time
virtual software
virtual server sensitive
#arista
80% Cisco
arista networks
hp networking
• Conferences such as
hp sdn
VMworld sdn cloud
VMWorld tend to
70% cloud software
Vyatta
software defined cloud drive a different
openstack
60% cisco one conversation (end of
cisco sdn
VMware #vmworld
vmworld
August) and in this
50% #vyatta
case really sparked
Openflow vyatta
vmware sdn
40% #vmware conversations and
Virtualization vmware
#openflow messaging around
openflow
30% virtual network
network virtualization
Nicira amount IT
Nicira virtualization network
virtualization
Professionals
20% #nicira
nicira
sdnnetworking
10% “SDN” software-defined networks
software defined network
software defined networks
software-defined networking
0% software defined networking
AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER

8. 8
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN: Psychographic Profile of IT professionals:
-- Software Engineers, Architects, Developers

9. 9
Confidential and
Proprietary VDPFinder
Inc., 2012
SDN: Psychographic Profile of IT professionals:
-- Software Engineers, Architects, Developers, Security
• Titles • Descriptors
▫ SW Developer ▫ Geek/Nerd
▫ Engineer ▫ Hacker
▫ Architect ▫ Father/Dad
▫ Sysadmin ▫ Husband
▫ Consultant ▫ Entrepreneur
• Major Qualifications ▫ Founder
▫ Cloud • Likes
▫ Python ▫ Sports
▫ Hadoop ▫ Music
▫ Linux ▫ Photography
▫ Software ▫ Gamer
▫ Web
▫ Ruby
▫ php
▫ Sql
▫ security
▫ Java
▫ Android/apple/iOS
▫ Network