Data centers support traffic and applications that have diverse resource requirements ranging from high-bandwidth to security. The present day network architecture is rigid, which restricts the overall utilizable resource provided by the equipment in the data center. Considering the underlying principle of SDN, applications with specific needs can be deployed on an SDN infrastructure.

SDN can support multiple network instances on a single forwarding element, allowing maximum utilization of network resources, as shown in the following diagram. This feature supports the multi-tenancy requirement of future data centers:

SDN also supports the micromanagement of the traffic traversing through the data center, as unique security policies can be assigned on the basis of the packet. Finally, with the rise of cloud-based applications, SDN supports the need for timely and dynamic allocation of redundant resources for maximum delivery of services per time.