I begin with an assumption that you are somewhat familiar with "whitebox" term as it relates to networking gears and cognizant of its trend. The term "whitebox" and "open networking" to some extent synonymous, both innately suggest networking gears that are "open" meaning adheres to "open" standards and ecosystems. The former is a byproduct of open networking concept and refers to the disaggregation model in which hardware and software are separated. This decoupling of hardware and software created opportunities for a software ecosystem to flourish: well, almost! As with any technologies advents, early days are little bumpy.