Linode is in a position to seriously consider SDN and they shoot themselves in the foot with one of the most stagnant companies as it applies to new and innovative product for pushing packets. I'd have been far more impressed with Juniper in the hot seat here. At least they're more cost competitive. You can get a full non-blocking 10Gb L3 switch (480Gb backplane) for less than $20k fully loaded up with 10Gb SRs out of their EX line if you're looking to play it safe in 'standard' networking.
The good part about software is there's far less vendor bias. This just smells of a Cisco blowhard touting the wonders of a fully vendor locked network. And software people seem to be less informed of the reality that is how the current norm of the networking realm works.
Good luck to them. I've put in plenty of ASR and Nexus gear in the past few years. They'll need it.