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Software-defined anything (SDx) is an important yet ambiguous term that refers to new changes happening in the IT world. It is a movement toward promoting a greater role for software systems in controlling different kinds of hardware – more specifically, making software more "in command" of multi-piece hardware systems and allowing for software control of a greater range of devices.
Techopedia Explains Software-Defined Anything
Experts explain SDx as a fundamentally connective tool that supports evolving network topologies. Another way to think about SDx is as an extension of the bring your own device (BYOD) movement, which is puzzling businesses and security managers. The BYOD movement essentially opened the control of network data from conventional workstations to portable smartphones and tablets. A SDx approach could further open up that field to different types of portable or versatile devices. However, this approach is also a double-edged sword, as expanding network capability can generate even greater security gaps, leaving businesses scrambling to understand how to minimize liability from unauthorized smartphone or tablet usage.
Some also link the emergence of a software-defined anything approach to the Internet of Things (IoT), an emerging philosophy of linking more types of devices and assets to a global IP network. Generally, this supports the most basic definition of SDx as a future system, where one set of software rules over numerous connected machines while directing many different types of user activity.
