Electrical drives are one of the major consumers of electrical energy and their penetration in the market is still growing. Hence, for many drive applications efficient, reliable and cost effective solutions have to be found. Switched reluctance drives(SRD) offer a potential solution when focus is mainly on cost and robustness. However, to benefit from the unique advan-tages of this machine type a deep understanding of its strongly non-linear behavior is required. After discussing some major differences to classic rotating field machines, this paper presents a broad overview of the state of the art of SRD taking into con-sideration all aspects relevant to machine modeling, design and control development process. Finally, applications on the market utilizing SRDs and the focus of current research is presented. After reading this paper the reader will be able to assess if this modern drive technology could be advantagous in a given appli-cation.