Telecom giant reportedly poaches SDN leader Inder Gopal from IBM
Ericsson bolstered its support of software-defined networking technology, with reports indicating the infrastructure giant has hired Inder Gopal, OpenDaylight Project founding chairman.
SDNCentral reported that Gopal has been brought into Ericsson under current head of technology strategy Erik Ekudden. While Gopal’s title is not yet clear, it is expected he will continue working on SDN-related projects.
Prior to joining Ericsson, Gopal worked at IBM, which SDNCentral noted has lost a number of SDN executives following the sale of its networking business.
Ericsson announced earlier this year a major push into the telecom software space as part of an overall company restructuring. The move will see the company split its networks unit into two groups, with one concentrating on radio technologies while the other will focus on IP and cloud initiatives.
The company announced in February plans for a new lab in support of the OpenDaylight Project community. The OpenDaylight Project was spun off of the Linux Foundation and is working to integrate technologies and code to deliver a common, open source platform for network programmability.
Telecom software based on SDN and network function virtualization gained significant traction over the past year, with trade groups, vendors and telecom operators announcing advancements in the SDN and NFV space. AT&T earlier this month said by 2020 it plans to virtualize and control more than 75% of its network using software architecture. The move is expected to be accomplished through the use of cloud, SDN and NFV technologies.
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