Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has killed off its OpenSDN product suite, including the HPE OpenSDN controller, according to The Register, which obtained an internal HPE memo.
“HPE will no longer offer a native telco/service provider SDN solution,” said the memo. “We will rely on partners for this capability instead. This decision is made in light of business and financial considerations.”
In an email to SDxCentral, an HPE spokesperson wrote, “HPE has discontinued development of OpenSDN and offers partner solutions in its place. We continue to invest and participate in relevant open source efforts to provide industry leadership and acceptance. Our mission has always been to be partner-centric and provide customers with choice and open systems. We continue on that path.”
OpenSDN originated at ConteXtream, which was acquired by HPE in 2015. Nachman Shelef co-founded ConteXtream.
Just last October, Shelef, VP and GM of HPE OpenSDN, told SDxCentral that HPE was updating its OpenSDN controller and increasing its investment in OpenDaylight.
But according to his LinkedIn profile, Shelef left HPE in January 2017.
The internal HPE memo obtained by The Register was written by VP of Product Management for NFV Sarwar Raza and Head of Global Sales for Telco Cloud Jacques Rames.
In the memo, they told HPE sales staff to offer alternative options to OpenSDN, including the HPE Distributed Cloud Networking (DCN) products. “Please note that these products are not perfect substitutes for each other, so you may have to re-qualify open opportunities based on DCN features,” they wrote.