Because OpenFlow and the Floodlight controller are open source, there is a degree of interoperability that would not have been possible otherwise, according to Forster. Prior to the open sourcing of Floodlight, Big Switch conducted an interoperability test and it took 600 emails to get everything together. Now that Floodlight is available as open source, anyone can freely download and test it on their own for interoperability, which removes barriers to adoption and entry.
“Because of open source, we just get a huge boom for free and if it works with open source than there is a 99.999 percent chance it works with our commercial controller as well,” Forster said.