Open Compute Project Gets a SONIC Boost

The #OpenComputeProject (OCP) held its 2016 U.S summit this week, with member organizations coming forward with new technologies to advance the state of the open data center.

From a networking perspective, the single biggest new development is the contribution of the Software for #OpenNetworking in the Cloud ( #SONiC ). SONiC is an effort that comes to OCP, with the support of multiple vendors, though the project today is led by #Microsoft.

"SONiC is a collection of networking software components required to have a fully functional L3 device that can be agnostic of any particular #Linux distribution," The SONiC Github project pagestates. "Today SONiC runs on Debian."

SONiC was formerly known as Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) and is already in used inside of Microsoft's production data centers.

The SONiC platform is built on top of the the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) that was announced at the 2015 OCP Summit. SAI is an abstraction layer for switches that enables a common API interface across network operating systems.

#Dell is contributing its #OS10 networking software to be a base for SONiC and is supporting the effort overall.

http://mobile.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/open-compute-project-gets-a-sonic-boost.html

Mellanox Introduces Open Composable Networks to Enable New Interconnect Speeds and Higher Efficiency for OCP Platforms

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & YOKNEAM, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#Mellanox ® Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX), a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, today unveiled its next-generation Open Composable Networks ( #OCN ) platform at the Open Compute Project ( #OCP ) Summit. OCN delivers ground-breaking open network platforms for enterprises and service providers to unlock performance and unleash innovation with predictable application performance and the efficiency of Web-Scale IT. #Mellanox is showcasing OCN with a live demo of end-to-end 10/25, 50, 100 Gb/s network composed of LinkX cables, the new #ConnectX-4 Lx based OCP adapter cards, and the flagship Spectrum Ethernet switches capable of running multiple network operating systems (NOS) and applications, including #Cumulus #Linux, #OpenSwitch, #Metaswitch IP Routing, and Mellanox MLNX-OS, running on open software interfaces such as OCP Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) and Linux #Switchdev.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160307005321/en/Mellanox-Introduces-Open-Composable-Networks-Enable-Interconnect

Juniper Networks Introduces Junos Software Disaggregation to Dramatically Expand Customer Choice and Network Automation

#Juniper Networks Introduces #Junos Software Disaggregation to Dramatically Expand Customer Choice and Network Automation
New Access Switch and Software Deployment Models to Provide Flexibility for Data Center Customers

November 03, 2015 12:01 PM Eastern Standard Time
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NXTWORK 2015 – Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), the industry leader in network innovation, today unveiled at its #NXTWORK 2015 Customer Summit a disaggregated version of Juniper Networks® Junos® software to provide customers with ultimate choice in data center deployment options. Through disaggregation of Junos software, customers will have the ability to deploy third-party network services or applications directly on Juniper platforms as well as have the option to program directly to Juniper systems using the supported Open Compute Project (#OCP) defined software model.

Juniper also introduced today the Juniper Networks #QFX5200 line of access switches, the first platform to run the disaggregated Junos software as well as support the emerging 25 and 50 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard. Combined, the switches and software will provide industry-leading network automation and programmability while providing customers flexibility in purchasing hardware separately from software with a pay-for-what-you-need software-licensing model.

Additionally, Juniper today highlighted the rapid implementation of its Juniper Networks #MetaFabric™ architecture and Juniper Networks Contrail software-defined networking (SDN) technologies across leading converged and hyper-converged stack solutions, helping customers simplify and scale their data center and cloud infrastructures while ensuring long-term investment protection.

The purpose of the network has changed as people increasingly look for ways to better collaborate and connect. This shift, along with growing network traffic levels and the rise of virtualized applications, containers and workloads, puts increased pressure on IT to constantly deliver more, faster, and at a reduced cost while scaling in, out, up or down in an instant.

To keep pace with the velocity of business, data centers need to support a flexible infrastructure that focuses on virtualization, automation, converged systems, software-defined offerings and cloud-based technologies. According to Gartner, establishing agile infrastructure forces infrastructure and operations organizations to rethink infrastructure strategy, with an emphasis on integrated systems, cloud and virtualization, which means taking Web-scale approaches, using containers and working to establish a software-defined infrastructure.*

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151103006115/en/Juniper-Networks-Introduces-Junos-Software-Disaggregation-Dramatically