Jay Gill

Author Archives: Jay Gill

Unified Cloud Networking Changes the Game

Today we announced our Unified Cloud Networking vision, the industry’s first Unified Cloud Fabric solution and our partnership with NVIDIA. This truly changes the game for cloud network operators.

Last week I made the case that cloud networking needs a new vision in order to meet two strategic goals shared by cloud operators:

  1. Transform cloud networks to become as agile, highly available and simple to operate as the hyperscale public clouds.
  2. Move rapidly toward a new, more highly distributed networking and zero-trust security architecture to address increasing cybersecurity risks.

Just as importantly, we need new solutions to overcome the obstacles that prevent operators from achieving those goals, i.e. fragmented networks and incomplete solutions for security, automation and visibility.

Today, I outline how we have created the vision and solutions to overcome those obstacles and meet those goals. In a companion blog, Alessandro Barbieri dives deeper into the challenges we are addressing and how we are turning the vision into reality.

Introducing the Unified Cloud Networking Vision

Unified Cloud Networking solutions build on the Unified Cloud Fabric (the next generation of our proven Adaptive Cloud Fabric) to unify networks across multiple dimensions – switches and servers, overlay and underlay Continue reading

Cloud Networking Needs a New Vision

While hyperscale public clouds grab attention, the majority of workloads and cloud infrastructure will continue to remain elsewhere for the foreseeable future. Enterprise private clouds are not only NOT disappearing but growing, spanning on-premises data centers, colocation sites and increasingly distributed edge sites. Tier 2 cloud service providers cater to local markets and provide services more closely tailored to their customers’ needs. Telecom service providers operate highly distributed clouds to support their network services.

These cloud operators all have two similar goals for their network infrastructure, goals that are so critical to remaining competitive that we can even call them mandates:

  1. Transform cloud networks to become as agile, highly available and simple to operate as the hyperscale public clouds.
  2. Move rapidly toward a new, more highly distributed networking and zero-trust security architecture to address increasing cybersecurity risks.

Unfortunately, achieving these goals is far from simple. Current networking solutions are not only insufficient, they are in many ways the biggest problem. The below datapoint, from The State of Data Center Networking: 2021 Annual Report, illustrates just that. The top two challenges in achieving a highly agile and available active-active or active-hot standby data center architectures are both related to network Continue reading

VXLAN: Virtualizing Data Center Networks for the Cloud Era

Since VXLAN was introduced in 2014 it has become an important component of modern data center network fabrics. This blog reviews what VXLAN is, why it was developed, how it is being used in data centers, and advantages over other virtualization technologies. In an upcoming blog, we will look at some innovative VXLAN applications outside the data center.

What is VXLAN?

Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) is an Internet standard protocol that provides a means of encapsulating Ethernet (Layer 2) frames over an IP (Layer 3) network, a concept often referred to as “tunneling.” This allows devices and applications to communicate across a large physical network as if they were located on the same Ethernet Layer 2 network.

Tunneling approaches such as VXLAN provide an important tool to virtualize the physical network, often called the “underlay,” and allow for connectivity to be defined and managed as a set of virtual connections, called the “overlay.” These virtual connections can be created, modified and removed as needed without any change to the physical underlay network. (Mike Capuano’s blog, What to Know About Data Center Overlay Networks, provides a deeper dive on overlays.)

While VXLAN is only one Continue reading

Bringing the Power of SDN Automation to BGP EVPN Overlays

Some customers have asked whether Pluribus can create an overlay using BGP EVPN throughout the fabric, like other vendors do, and not just at the edge. The answer is “yes” we absolutely can do that, but unlike other vendors, we can apply the power of SDN automation to make it simpler.

The post Bringing the Power of SDN Automation to BGP EVPN Overlays appeared first on Pluribus Networks.

The State of Data Center Networking 2021: Long Live Private Cloud

Today Pluribus announced the release of the State of the Data Center Networking 2021 Annual Report. This groundbreaking original research, conducted with Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), not only confirms many of the trends we have discussed recently, it reveals just how strong they are.

The post The State of Data Center Networking 2021: Long Live Private Cloud appeared first on Pluribus Networks.

IoT Video Security Networks, Simplified.

Today we announced a new networking solution to simplify IoT video surveillance and security. Video surveillance has become a mission-critical element of security strategies in smart cities, utilities, transportation, universities and other highly distributed environments.
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