"I guess the whole 'Software Defined' (storage, networking) isn't happening then?
Why bother with custom ASICs when you can just use off-the-shelf hardware that is plenty fast enough for the job?"
That's not really the point of software defined networking (not sure about storage, not my area). The commodity hardware you use for a software defined network still has the custom ASICs needed for fast packet forwarding, you've just taken the high level functionality (such as building and maintaining the routing tables that govern this forwarding) and abstracted it away to a separate network controller box which does its work in software. So you end up paying your "commodity" network equiment manufacturer $$$ for the fast switching hardware, but only pay $$ for the control hardware/software elsewhere - as opposed to $$$$$ for hardware and $$$$$ for software if you buy it as an integrated unit with full proprietary lock down from the likes of Cisco. That's the theory, at least. You're certainly not going to be replacing your network switch with an off the shelf x86 box with a bunch of interface cards, if that's what you were thinking (well, it might work for a lab setup, but for anything serious? No... just... no).
The rest of your post is fair enough though, so have an upvote on me.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
