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In one of the most candid discussions with Jayshree Ullal, Arista Network’s CEO, she voices her view of Software-Defined Networking as not a market but a set of features. Jayshree views OpenFlow as but one in many APIs becoming available to program layer 2/3 networks. If you’re looking for SDN hype, then no need to listen to this podcast. But if you want a realistic view of this important industry trend, then listen up.
Data center operators are expanding data centers to deliver virtualized and cloud-based services including business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. These additional service and availability requirements lead to increased bandwidth and greater distances between geographically dispersed data center sites. As new services are added, data center environments that were once fiber-rich can quickly run out of fiber and find the associated cost for adding more fiber to be prohibitively expensive. Cost-effective embedded DWDM and distance extension solutions can reduce complexity, operating costs and enable a rapid delivery of new services. Find out how by downloading this whitepaper.
Advanced Event Management (AEM) is a powerful and flexible set of tools to automate tasks, customize the behavior of the system and associated operation of the switching infrastructure. Leveraging an open operating system, AEM allows operators to fully utilize the intelligence within EOS to respond to real-time events, automate routine tasks, and take local automated action based on changing network conditions. Simplifying the overall operations, AEM provides the tools to customize alerts and actions. This white paper describes Arista’s approach to Advanced Event Management.
Software Defined Cloud Networking (SDCN) is a term often used when a controller external to the forwarding logic and the actual switch itself programs the network devices to alter or enhance the flow of traffic. SDCN can be achieved via standard APIs that several hardware and software architectures intend to support. This white paper describes Arista’s approach to Software Defined Cloud Networking
Computer networking vendors have been increasing the speed and port density of their Ethernet switches while reducing power draw and price per port. But while Ethernet switching hardware marches on linearly, thanks to 10, 40 and 100GbE, networking software is taking a different historical path as the pace of compute and network technology evolution has diverged, with networking lagging. Highly virtualized server deployment has broken traditional networking approaches on multiple levels, for example. In response, the industry is now developing a “virtualized infrastructure” or “stack” to add network flexibility. To close the technology gap, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is promoted as the new “organizing principle” to deliver network software and service value. While it will be, likely, years before SDN’s organizing principles take hold, I propose that these two industry activities are inexplicably linked and phased; here’s why…
The Lippis Report has conducted three open industry test of 10 and 40GbE data center fabric switches at Ixia’s iSimCity. Michael Githens of Ixia interviews Nick Lippis of the Lippis Report to look back on what we have learned after testing eleven products from nine vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Arista Networks, Brocade, Dell/Force10, Extreme Networks, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Juniper Networks and Mellanox/Voltaire. We then look forward as to what the industry will be serving up in 2012 for data center fabrics.
Download “Fall 2011 Open Industry Network Performance And Power Test Report” here.
VMWARE VXLAN is a new network technology developed by VMware that enables stateful VM mobility across traditional L3 routed boundaries. This enables more freedom and flexibility in matching workloads to computing power. By enabling a larger, and essentially flatter network while building on top of proven models for stable scaling of networks such as routing and equal-cost multipath forwarding, VXLAN enables any workload to be provisioned on any virtualized host, anywhere in the network that is IP reachable. No longer do routed topology decisions restrict workload mobility.
If you are a VMware and network administrator who is building virtualized networks with more than 250 VMs or want to stretch a virtual machine farm across two data centers or two or more routed domains with full workload portability, then you need to read this white paper.
While servers and applications have fully embraced the concepts of automation, sadly the network infrastructure, on which they all rely, is still mired in legacy technologies. Current methodology, such as CLI, requires extensive hands-on provisioning and configuration by knowledgeable personnel. In modern cloud infrastructure, network managers must be able to centralize provisioning and configuration roles to improve reliability, minimize bring-up costs, and contain the expenses of creating a cloud data center service. Whether you are looking to maximize the efficiency and reliability of your existing operations, or you are looking to take advantage of a cloud-based infrastructure, fully automated provisioning is an essential capability, and Arista’s Zero Touch provisioning offers the first approach to automated network configuration.
The IT Industry’s Second Open Network Performance and Power Draw Test for Private/Public Data Center Cloud Computing Ethernet Fabrics
Evaluating 10 GbE Switches
A cross vendor comparative test report conducted at Ixia’s iSmiCity defined by The Lippis Report. This report provides detailed test information on the following new products that have not been previously tested in public. The report details test results of the following products:
Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 10K,
Arista 7504 Series Data Center Switch,
Arista 7124SX 10G SFP Data Center Switch,
Arista 7050S-64 10/40G Data Center Switch,
Brocade VDXTM 6720-24 Data Center Switch,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124,
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8264,
Force10 S-Series S4810,
Hitachi Cable, Apresia15000-64XL-PSR,
Juniper Network EX Series EX8216 Ethernet Switch,
Voltaire® VantageTM 6048.
This 93-page report is a must for those evaluating 10/40 GbE data center switching equipment for private or public cloud infrastructure. You don’t want to buy data center switching gear until you read this report.
Andy Bechtolsheim, Founder, Chief Development Officer and Chairman of Arista Networks, joins me to discuss how the public and private data center cloud network market is emerging and the new type of networking it’s requiring.
Ethernet networking is now the single most important data center technology to assure the new IT economic model of centralized application delivery. Yes that’s right—Ethernet as the data center fabric is the stability point in data center design that will dictate if a data center or cloud facility can scale to support huge application and storage traffic loads. And if you think that Ethernet switch performance is not important then you would be as right as the engineers who designed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. In this Lippis Report Research Note, we explain why network performance of data center Ethernet switching products matter more now than ever.
Major IT Delivery Transitions IT Business Leaders Are Managing
Application owners and developers have been deploying and writing applications as if networks had no boundaries or were borderless. By “application owners” I mean IT departments chartered with IT application delivery and management. By “application developers” I mean in-house corporate software developers, independent software vendors (or ISVs) and software companies. There has always been a disconnect between applications and network architects where developers write applications to run over a network as long as there is connectivity. In addition, service-oriented architecture (SOA) based applications call for greater application componentization, which increases messaging between application components, resulting in the network having a direct impact on application performance. In essence, application owners, developers and application standard bodies assume that networks are borderless as the industry is organized around the OSI model where knowledge and skills at one layer, e.g., the network is not necessarily taken into account at another layer, i.e., the application. Therefore, the normal state of affairs is that network designers have been tasked to optimize applications to improve user experience especially when the application was not written to run over a particular kind of network. This status quo does not scale and needs to be re-thought.
VM Tracer offers the tightest integration between virtual machines and network infrastructure. Visibility in to virtualized infrastructure is key for management and operations of mobile and virtual environments.
In one of the most candid discussions with Jayshree Ullal, Arista Network’s CEO, she voices her view of Software-Defined Networking as not a market but a set of features. Jayshree views OpenFlow as but one in many APIs becoming available to program layer 2/3 networks. If you’re looking for SDN hype, then no need to listen to this podcast. But if you want a realistic view of this important industry trend, then listen up.
