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Several technology inflection points are coming together that are fundamentally changing the way networks are architected, deployed and operated, both in the public and private cloud. From performance, to scale, to virtualization support and automation to simplified orchestration, the requirements are rapidly changing and driving new approaches to building data center networks. This white paper does an excellent job at articulating cloud-scale network architecture via an open fabric that accounts for all major industry trends.
Avaya has expanded its cloud networking product portfolio with the Virtual Services Platform or VSP 7000, a 10GbE Top of Rack (ToR) Switch and its new Virtualization Provisioning Service or VPS management software.
The VSP 7000 boasts a multi-Terabit Fabric capable of horizontally stacking many 7000s, offering a new approach to server connections. The VPS virtualization management application provides visibility and automated control of virtualized infrastructure. VPS is designed to provide NetOps and SysOps shared visibility of physical, logical and now virtual IT assets. Dan DeBacker, Director of Data Solutions Architecture at Avaya, discusses the new VSP 7000 plus VPS and the new data center design options they afford.
In Cisco’s Data Center Fabric, it has delivered a set of features and innovations that solve some of the most difficult networking challenges found in virtualized infrastructure. IP address and VM mobility plus adapter and VM Fabric EXtenders (FEX) offer increased support for virtualized data center infrastructure, offering designers flexibility to move virtualized assets independent of location. These innovations are proposed by Cisco that promises virtualization aware networking, lower cost and increased performance. Omar Sultan, Senior Manager, Data Center Architecture at Cisco Systems, and I discuss Cisco’s new data center virtualization tools.
Cisco’s Nexus Operating System that runs on the Nexus switches and evolved from Cisco’s MDS SAN-OS is a fundamental building block of its Data Center Fabric. Berna Devrim, Senior Manager of Data Center and Virtualization Marketing at Cisco Systems, discusses the next generation of Nexus OS designed to address the biggest data center issues. These issues are virtualization scale and mobility, cloud spec scale, LAN and SAN convergence plus operational efficiency. This is one of the best audio podcast we’ve produced, so sit back listen, learn and enjoy.
In November of 2010 Avaya launched its Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture or VENA, which describes its computer networking investment strategy and technology direction. VENA was designed for virtualized data center infrastructure but has been expanded to include campus and branch office networking. Dan DeBacker, Director of Data Solutions Architecture at Avaya discusses the unique attributes VENA possesses to meet today’s enterprise networking needs and the business outcomes its customers are gaining by its deployment.
As data centers scale to support thousands of servers, IT managers are seeking better ways to network those servers while reducing costs and power consumption. Moreover, in large-scale data center cluster environments, inter-node communication bandwidth is increasingly becoming the main bottleneck. Compute nodes located across different physical switches may not have full bandwidth in a conventional hierarchical network design of interconnected switches. The solution is a distributed core architecture based on low-cost, high-capacity switches. This paper describes the use of Force10 Network’s® Z9000™ core switching system in a distributed core architecture to address these issues.
In the quest to build a data center network that is flat, fast and fault tolerant, the networking industry has served up a new two-tier architecture made up of Top-of-Rack or ToR server connecting switches and highly dense Core switches. Core switches connect ToR devices. The key question is how best to provide switch connectivity to deliver a lossless, high performance, low latency fabric that supports virtualization mobility. The answer is found in Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation Group or MC-LAG, Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links or TRILL and/or Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). Dhritiman Dasgupta, Director of Product Marketing for Fabric and Switching Technologies at Juniper Networks, discusses its QFabric approach and why TRILL’s hair pinning method to inter-VLAN routing is a poor approach. It’s a fascinating discussion that you have to listen to. You can also download a white paper on this topic here.
Cisco is the only large vertical IT supplier with compute, storage and deep networking capabilities making its data center offering unique. It’s Unified Network Services or UNS, Unified Computing System or UCS, Unified Fabric and policy based management make up the Cisco Data Center Fabric. In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Shashi Kiran; Director of Market Management for Data Center/Virtualization at Cisco Systems about the vision and strategy of Cisco’s Data Center Fabric and the value its customers are gaining from its use.
Cloud computing is an emerging computing model that promises a new era of flexibility and control in providing data center resources. In the cloud model, data center managers can mix and match computing, storage, and networking resources to provide an agile and highly flexible resource for customer applications. To realize the full potential, this paradigm requires open, standardized interfaces between data center layers of compute resources, the network, and storage elements. While the industry has moved toward open computing and storage layers over the past few years, networking has remained largely proprietary. Force10’s Open Cloud NetworkingSM framework is intended to unlock the network layer so data center operators can get the most out of their data center architectures and, in turn, get the most out of their cloud deployments.
Extreme Networks has added to its Extreme Open Fabric cloud networking portfolio by introducing a unique 10/40GbE ToR switch in its Summit X670; an ultra low latency switch thanks to a PHY-less design and cut-through switching. For the core, the new BlackDiamond X8 is a massive core switch built for virtualized infrastructure. It boasts 192x40GbE or 768 10GbE ports, 5 Watts/10GbE port power consumption, 128K VMs, high reliability and compact size being only one-third of a rack or 14.5 RUs. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology at Extreme Networks, about Extreme’s new cloud networking products and the architecture it now offers to IT architects and designers.
This report details the test results of the Force10 Networks S-Series S4810 enterprise Top-of-Rack (ToR) Ethernet switch. All 48 10GbE ports of the Force10 Networks S-Series S4810 are populated and tested for performance, throughput, latency and power consumption. The Force10 Networks S-Series S4810 test results are then compared against IBM BNT RackSwitch G8264, Voltaire Vantage™ 6048 and Apresia 15K ToR switches.
This report details the test results of the IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124 & G8264 enterprise Top-of-Rack (ToR) Ethernet switches. All 24 and 64 10GbE ports of the IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124 & G8264, respectively, are populated and tested for performance, throughput, latency and power consumption. The IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124 & G8264’s test results are then compared against Force10 Networks S4810, Voltaire Vantage™ 6048 and Apresia 15K ToR switches.
This report details the test results of the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch™ 10K enterprise core Ethernet switch. All 256 10GbE ports are populated and tested for performance, throughput, latency and power consumption. The OmniSwitch™ 10K’s test results are then compared against Juniper’s EX8216 and Arista Networks 7504 core switches.
Nick Lippis of the Lippis Report announces the participating vendors in the 10GbE Data Center Network Fabric test at the iSimCity lab during the week of Dec 6-10, 2010. Watch it here
