There's a famous quote from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky that's referenced a lot in the technology industry: "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."

Sports clichés aside, Gretzky's words send a powerful message, and one that seems especially pertinent to the IT market, where staying ahead of the latest technologies and trends – rather than just keeping up – is a must for long-term success. 

Solution providers, of course, are faced with that challenge every day. Those who are slow to embrace the latest market trends risk losing customers to competitors or, even worse, becoming irrelevant.

But Terrapin Systems, a San Jose, Calif.-based solution provider specializing in network infrastructure, is determined to never be that company. Under the leadership of president and CEO Chris Becerra, Terrapin this year has forged multiple new vendor partnerships, invested heavily in technical training, and listened intently to the needs of its customers, all to become a leader in one of the most disruptive technology shifts today: software-defined networking.

"Our thought was that we better become experts on [SDN] now before waiting until that tipping point happens, because then it's too late," Becerra said in an interview with IT Best of Breed. "We want to make sure we are known for providing these types of services in the industry now."

Software-defined networking – or technology that turns the high-end functions of switches, routers and other networking gear into software that can run on commodity hardware – is rapidly transforming from industry buzzword to reality.

According to IDC, the SDN market is on pace to reach $8 billion in 2018, up from $960 million in 2014.

NEXT: The Inflection Point