SSL and Cryptography in Software Defined Networks

Hi!  If you follow the networking market, you probably know that Software Defined Networks (SDN) represent a potential tectonic shift in how we think about and design network environments.  The concept has been around since 2005, but has gained significant momentum in the last couple of years, to the point where it is not just the talk of networking industry insiders, but has reached the mainstream financial press.  For a backgrounder on SDN, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_networking.

Our interest in SDN at wolfSSL is specific to the security aspects, and even more specifically to the SSL/TLS.  From our vantage point, there are a lot of things to think about, including SDN languages like Frenetic, standards like OpenFlow and vendors like IpInfusion and their ZebOS.  

Currently, we believe that hardware cryptography is critical to the successful rollout of SDN, primarily for performance reasons.  As such, we are actively integrating performant support for a variety of hardware crypto solutions.  Recent examples include support for Cavium, AES-NI, STMicroelectronics, and Freescale.  

It is still the early days for SDN, so we recognize that there are additional considerations for us beyond just hardware crypto.  We`d like your feedback.  If you have commentary on CyaSSL for SDN, then let us know at facts@wolfssl.com.