Infographic: Companies want flexibility and faster production time from software defined networking. And they get it.

In 2013, last time Tech Pro Research conducted a poll on the topic, half of respondents said they didn't know anything about software-defined networking. This time, respondents were more familiar with SDN and much more willing to consider it. Plans to implement increased from 6% in 2013 to 32% now.

Respondents whose companies have already made the leap reported faster time to implementation for new business solutions, improved network performance, lower network management costs, and better reliability. 80% of that group said their operational objectives were met and 33% said there were no negative outcomes after implementation.

There are still people who doubt SDN, though. Of the 25% of respondents who said their companies had no plans to consider SDN, 43% reported that they saw no apparent reason for doing so, and 27% said there's still too little information about the benefits.

This infographic contains other important points from the research. To read more findings about software-defined networking, download the report from Tech Pro Research. SDN and the data center: Deployment plans, business drivers, and preferred vendors. (Membership required.)

Also see:
ZDNet Special Feature: Building the Software Defined Data Center
Don't believe the hype: Cisco and VMware SDN solutions could work better than you think
Q.rad uses servers to warm homes and offices instead of wasting energy to cool data centers
New storage technologies allow for denser, faster data storage