For Terrapin, Becerra said 2014 was an inflection point. After noticing a growing interest among customers for SDN, or what Terrapin calls "open networking" technologies, Becerra knew it was time for Terrapin to take the SDN leap.
 
"We really got serious about it at the beginning of 2014," he said. "Our customers were demanding more open networking technology, and were really steering us in that direction."

Becerra said Terrapin – which saw $19.5 million in revenue in 2013, up from $17 million in 2012 – is already seeing its investments in the SDN arena pay off.

"When it's all said and done, I am hoping to have between $250,000 and $500,000 in revenue this year from SDN or open networking deals and deployments, versus zero [in sales] just six months ago," Becerra said.

To drive that growth, Becerra knew Terrapin needed to diversify its vendor mix, which, since the company's launch in 2005, has been centered largely around Juniper Networks.

While Juniper is still a key partner for Terrapin, the solution provider this year struck up partnerships with a number of cutting-edge SDN startups, including Big Switch Networks, Cumulus Networks and Pica8. Terrapin is also a partner of Arista Networks, one of the most disruptive switching vendors in the industry today.

NEXT: Picking Partners