5 ways you can lower data center TCO

To build an affordably scalable data center network, we believe that disaggregation with Cumulus Linux is the ideal networking solution (for obvious reasons). If you haven’t made the jump to open networking, we recommend you read our total cost of ownership (TCO) report, which covers how our customers saved up to 60% by making the switch. For the rest of you that have already come to the light (we prefer calling it the green), we’ve put together a few tips for optimizing your data center network for increased efficiency and lower data center TCO.

1. Optimize your cables and optics
   The cost of optics varies greatly. If you’re running high-cost optics, we recommend doing your research and seeing if there is a lower-cost option that will suit your needs. As switches become denser, the optics and cables can actually cost more than the switches themselves — especially with proprietary, locked-in options from traditional vendors. Most traditional vendors source their optics from third-party manufacturers and then add a premium. When open optics are sourced directly from ODMs, you can reduce the cost of cables and optics by 50% to 70%.
2. Automate like a boss
   Most organizations are doing some form of Continue reading

The first and only NOS to support LinkedIn’s Open19 project

Today we are excited to announce our support of Open19, a project spearheaded by LinkedIn. Open19 simplifies and standardizes the 19-inch rack form factor and increases interoperability between different vendors’ technology. Built on the principles of openness, Open19 allows many more suppliers to produce servers that will interoperate and will be interchangeable in any rack environment.

We are thrilled to be the first and only network operating system supporting Open19 for two reasons. First, this joint solution offers complete choice throughout the entire stack — increasing interoperability and efficiency. We believe the ease of use of this new technology helps expand the footprint of web-scale networking and makes it even more accessible and relevant.

The second reason is that we are continually dedicated to innovation within the open community, and this is one more way we can support that mission. We believe that disaggregation is not only the future but the present (read more about why we think disaggregation is here to stay). When a company like LinkedIn jumped into the disaggregate ring, we knew we wanted to be a part of it.

What is Open19?

The primary component, Brick Cage, is a passive mechanical cage that fits Continue reading

VRF for Linux — a contribution to the Linux Kernel

If you’re familiar with Linux, you know how important and exciting it can be to submit new technology that is accepted into the kernel. If you’re not familiar with Linux, you can take my word for it (and I highly suggest you attend one of our bootcamps). Many networking features are motivated by an OS for switches and routers, but most if not all of those features prove useful for other use cases as well. Cumulus Networks strives for a uniform operating model across switches and servers, so it makes sense for us to spend the time and effort getting these features into upstream code bases. An example of this effort is VRF for Linux.

I joined Cumulus Networks in June 2015 to work on a VRF solution for Linux —to create an implementation that met the goals we wanted for Cumulus Linux and was acceptable to upstream maintainers for Linux as a whole. That solution was first available last year with Cumulus Linux 3.0 and because of the upstream push that solution is rolling out in general OS distributions such as Debian Stretch and Ubuntu 16.

This post is a bit long, so I start with a high Continue reading

Linux networking: It’s not just SDN

Oftentimes, Cumulus Linux gets confused for an SDN (software-defined networking) solution. In conversations with potential customers, I’ve noticed that some of them find it difficult to distinguish between SDN, open networking and Cumulus Linux. When I talk to network engineers, I start by clarifying the SDN buzzword head on. The term gets overused, and is often defined by other confusing acronyms or marketing jargon. To complicate things further, SDN is often thought of as equivalent to OpenFlow, which is flawed in my opinion.

What is SDN?

If I were to more accurately describe SDN based on my experiences in the networking industry, I would define it more broadly. Instead of defining SDN as a specific solution (such as OpenFlow), I define SDN as a highly automatable and programmable network infrastructure.

What SDN providers exist today?

• OpenFlow: Many companies and communities drive OpenFlow solutions, but today there is no guarantee any one solution can interoperate with any other.
• Proprietary or vendor-specific: Solutions such as Cisco’s ACI and Juniper Contrails are closed solutions that are positioned as SDN. Arguably, certain OpenFlow solutions can fall under here as well since they don’t all adhere to an OpenFlow standard.
• Network virtualization with technologies Continue reading

It’s official: Disaggregation is here to stay

When Cumulus Networks was first created, disaggregation was completely disruptive. Organizations of all shapes and sizes were running proprietary hardware and software through every single ounce of their data centers. We went into this industry excited to start something new and make networking faster, smarter, scalable and all-around better. We’re thrilled to report that a lot has changed since then.

This week, Arista announced that their operating system, Arista cEOS™, will support virtual machines, containers and third-party merchant silicon-based switches (ya know, like Cumulus Networks has been doing for quite some time now). This seems like a huge jump for Arista, who has been part of the proprietary school of thought from day one, but we’re honestly not surprised. This is an indicator of just how transformative open networking has been for the industry. It’s taking hold, sinking its teeth into tradition and tearing it apart (both literally and figuratively).

Here are a few other recent signifiers that disaggregation is here to stay:

• Gartner’s recent data showing 30% growth in white-box switching shipments, driven by the flexibility and significant cost reductions network operators are achieving through software operating systems
• Gartner reporting that by the year 2020, it is expected that over Continue reading

Container networking: What is it and how can it help your data center?

There has been a lot of buzz in the industry about containers and how they are streamlining organizational processes. In short, containers are a modern application sandboxing mechanism that are gaining popularity in all aspects of computing from the home desktop to web-scale enterprises. In this post we’ll cover the basics: what is container networking and how can it help your data center? In the future, we’ll cover how you can optimize a web-scale network using Cumulus Linux and containers.

What is a container?

A container is an isolated execution environment on a Linux host that behaves much like a full-featured Linux installation with its own users, file system, processes and network stack. Running an application inside of a container isolates it from the host and other containers, meaning that even when the applications inside of them are running as root, they can not access or modify the files, processes, users, or other resources of the host or other containers.

Containers have become popular due to the way they simplify the process of installing and running an application on a Linux server. Applications can have a complicated web of dependencies. The newest version of an application may require a newer Continue reading

What is web-scale networking?

If you’ve heard the buzz in the networking world lately, or if you’ve been paying attention to the back-to-back launches by Cumulus Networks as of late, then you’ve probably heard the term, “web-scale networking.” But what does that actually mean?

The term web-scale networking is inspired by data center giants like Facebook and Google. The industry looked at data centers like theirs and asked, “what are they doing that we can mimic at a smaller scale?” By analyzing these organizations and the benefits they receive from their tactics, the term “web-scale” was born. Essentially, web-scale refers to the hyperscale website companies that have built private, efficient and scalable cloud environments.

Web-scale networking: a definition

Web-scale networking is simply a modern architectural approach to infrastructure. The differentiating components are taken from the key requirements that large data center operators use to build smart networks. Businesses can design cost-effective, agile networks for the modern era by adhering to these three constructs:

• Open and modular
• Intelligence in software
• Scalable and efficient

These three constructs essentially comprise web-scale networking.

While compute has advanced through leaps and bounds with the convergence to private, public and hybrid clouds, networking has notoriously lagged behind. An Continue reading

Join us this year at OCP Summit

It’s that time of the year again! And no, we’re not talking about the arrival of the Spring Equinox (although we’re pretty excited about that too). It’s time for OCP Summit — one of our favorite events of the year. Why you ask? We are committed to the open compute project and we love sharing that passion with others in the industry. This year our summit schedule is chock-full of presentations, booth demos, networking and a multitude of discussions covering how organizations can go web-scale with Cumulus Networks.

What we’re doing at OCP Summit

First off, if you are attending Open Compute Project Summit this year, please stop by our booth for an up close and personal look at Backpack running Cumulus Linux. If you stop by, you’ll also be lucky enough to watch our cofounder and CTO, JR Rivers, demo the product and answer all of your burning questions.

This year we decided to treat attendees to everyone’s favorite fluffy snack — yup, we’ll have our very own cotton candy machine, so stop by during that post-lunch slump for a quick sugar hit. When you come by the booth, you’ll have a chance to enter our giveaway for a Continue reading

Facebook’s chassis, Disaggregate & a webinar you don’t want to miss

Several weeks ago, we let out some big news about Backpack, Facebook’s chassis, running Cumulus Linux. If you missed the news, check it out here.

As part of our launch, we attended Facebook’s exclusive event, Disaggregate, to talk about all things open networking. Our CTO and cofounder, JR Rivers, gave a stellar presentation covering a short history of open networking (“I watched the Googles of the world grow up”), how ONIE was born and why Cumulus Linux was created to help an industry evolve, scale and build better networks. You can watch the full presentation here.

We also manned our station at the event, answering questions about our integration with Backpack and even demoing Cumulus Linux on the product. Some of our takeaways from the event included:

• There was a nice mix of customers. From hyper-scale to SaaS, traditional organizations to state and local governments — all types of organizations were represented. Some were there to learn about the benefits of open networking while others were looking for ways to scale their footprint.
• Most discussions with customers were about their ability to build and/or use their custom applications that traditional lock-in vendors don’t support, which gave them freedom and choice. Continue reading

100G & 25G Plugfests: What we learned

Howdy.

Happy Chinese New Year Y’all!!!

I wanted to take the time and talk about the 25/100G trend we find ourselves in. With more and more platforms being added (Cumulus Linux supports 9 of these platforms with the 3.2 release and we have plans to add more over the next few months), and more customers making the switch to 25/100G as a way to future-proof their networks given the economics of 25/100G open networking switches being on par with their 10/40G counterparts, it’s clear that the 25/100G trend is picking up speed. It was a long journey to get to this point, and we learned a lot on the way. I’d like to take this opportunity to take a look back, analyze the situation and highlight a few things we learned as an industry.

Setting the stage: A short history of the 25G and 100G rush

I don’t know if y’all remember the 100G race between vendors in 2015 to deliver the first 100G switch based on the new 28 GHz standard; everyone had to be first in the market. We even had a handful of 100G switch submissions to OCP by mid 2015. Plus, for the first time Continue reading

Announcing Backpack running Cumulus Linux — completing our networking portfolio with a modular platform

We are thrilled to announce our integration with Backpack — the industry’s first commercially supported open chassis with Cumulus Linux. You can now have a consistent operating model across fixed and modular platforms.

With Backpack and Cumulus Linux, you can simplify hyperscaling your network infrastructure, especially as you migrate from 40G to 100G platforms.

When Facebook first approached us about the technology, we were thrilled to be a part of it. We’ve always believed the chassis is an important part of the ecosystem, but we also knew the technology needed to be improved.

In fact, when Cumulus Networks was first founded, we were working on developing a chassis that would work seamlessly with open networking ecosystems. No really, we did! Don’t believe us? Here’s the proof:

Clearly, we never quite got it right. But luckily for us and open networking enthusiasts everywhere, Facebook did. Read more about Facebook and Cumulus Networks.

What is Backpack?

This is Facebook’s second generation modular switch platform based on web-scale principles. Cumulus Networks collaborated with Facebook to provide ONIE support for Backpack. Backpack is an 8RU chassis with 128x 100G ports built as a distributed model where each line card and fabric card have dedicated CPUs Continue reading

Introducing Cumulus Express — open networking hardware & software all in one

In the last few months at Cumulus Networks, we’ve put a lot of focus on finding innovative ways to make web-scale networking accessible to data centers of all sizes and engineers of all backgrounds. We released features like NCLU, EVPN and PIM to make that happen.

In our minds, web-scale networking principles make data centers more powerful and make engineers’ lives easier. We take great pride in helping organizations accelerate their journey to web-scale in the fastest, simplest way possible. That’s why we are super excited to announce that web-scale networking with Cumulus Networks just got EVEN BETTER. We know, you didn’t think it was possible.

Allow us to formally introduce Cumulus Express — your turnkey solution featuring an open networking switch preloaded and licensed with Cumulus Linux. Each Cumulus Express switch is ready to go as is, improving your time to market by eliminating steps to install and research optics. That’s right, you can now deploy switches running Cumulus Linux in one easy step.

With Cumulus Express you get:

• 1G to 100G platforms: Available in 1G-T, 10G/10G-T, 25G (coming soon), 40G & 100G speeds
• NOS & license preloaded: Each switch comes preloaded with Cumulus Linux with an active license Continue reading

The future of web-scale networking is here

A guest post by David Iles of Mellanox . This is the 4th blog in a 4-part series highlighting many of the features in our Cumulus Linux 3.2 release that are designed to help our customers move towards web-scale networking.

Must be this tall to play in this data center

If you’ve ever been to an amusement park, you’ve seen those “must be this tall to ride” signs. With data centers, instead of goofy signs mocking the vertically challenged, network architectures plant strict feature requirements into RFPs to weed out the less mature offerings. In many cases, they even place features they don’t really need – sometimes as a way to measure the breadth of the offerings that get submitted.

Just as an archaeologist can determine the historical date of excavation sites based on the artifacts found there, I can usually identify the age of network RFPs by the features embedded in them:

•  TRILL –  the RFP is at least 2 years old
• RIP –  the RFP is at probably 4 years old
• Stacking (in the datacenter) –  RFP is probably 6 years old
• Token Ring or FDDI – RFP must be 20 years old
• MLAG (VPC) – no more Continue reading

Happy Holidays from Cumulus Networks

2016 has been a big year for Cumulus Networks. We welcomed in a new CEO, helped our customers reduce TCO with a new perpetual pricing model, released NCLU, launched the industry’s first routing on the host solution, delivered the first multi-platform, multi-silicon 100G open networking solution, and we had a lot of fun hosting webinars, events and meetups — just to name a few.

To top off an already wonderful year, we were recently awarded one of the Glassdoor Best Places to Work for small and medium size businesses. We are both humbled and flattered to be awarded by our own employees, and we are dedicated to ensuring that Cumulus Networks stays a creative, innovative and fun place to work.

Just as importantly, we are dedicated to ensuring that our customers have the tools they need to build web-scale networks like the world’s largest data center operators. We believe in providing our customers the right technology, the right information and the right support to help them get there.

In 2017, we have a lot of exciting plans to enhance our customers’ web-scale experience. For starters, we’ll soon be launching EVPN for general availability. And we think Continue reading

Announcing EVPN for scalable virtualized networks

This post was updated on 2/22/17 to reflect the official launch of EVPN. You can now access EVPN in general availability. Read the white paper to learn more about this exciting new feature.

When we set out to build new features for Cumulus Linux, we ask ourselves two questions: 1) How can we make network operators’ jobs easier? And 2) How can we help businesses use web-scale IT principles to build powerful, efficient and highly-scalable data centers? With EVPN, we believe we nailed both.

Why EVPN?

Many data centers today rely on layer 2 connectivity for specific applications and IP address mobility. However, an entire layer 2 data center can bring challenges such as large failure domains, spanning tree complexities, difficulty troubleshooting, and scale challenges as only 4094 VLANS are supported.

Therefore, modern data centers are moving to a layer 3 fabric, which means running a routing protocol, such as BGP or OSPF between the leaf and spine switches. In order to provide layer 2 connectivity, between hosts and VMs on different racks as well as maintain multi-tenant separation, layer 2 overlay solution is deployed such as VXLAN. However, VXLAN does not define a control plane to learn and exchange Continue reading

New Cumulus Linux features: Snapshots & Rollback

Sometimes you really need a do over

This is the 2nd blog in a 4-part series highlighting many of the Cumulus Linux features in our 3.2 release. In this post, we’ll be detailing a feature exclusive to Cumulus Networks  —  Snapshots.

You know the feeling — you just ran your favorite Linux command with the –force option and typed “yes” to the question “Are you sure?”.

The command generates WAY more output than you were expecting. The back of your neck starts to tingle.  And it’s late Friday afternoon no less.  This can’t be good.  You really need a do over.

We hear you. In order to help you undo, fix and mitigate command errors, we created snapshots and rollbacks — the newest Cumulus Linux features, now available in our 3.2 release.

With Cumulus Networks, web-scale networking is easier and more powerful than ever. We incorporate the best technology from the Linux desktop and server ecosystems. When we come across a desktop application that works well, we bring it to network switches.

In the latest version of Cumulus Linux, we deploy the Btree File System (BTRFS) for the root file system. BTRFS brings a number of Continue reading

Web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux — announcing 3.2

We are pleased to announce that Cumulus Linux 3.2 is now available for installation. The priority of this release was our operators: how can we make web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux easier, faster and more efficient for operators coming from all types of engineering backgrounds.

As more and more organizations are adopting a cloud environment for various uses, web-scale IT principles become an increasingly relevant tool for building efficient, automatable and scalable data centers. This release offers our customers a path to web-scale networking that is simple and user friendly.

Over the next several days, we’ll be posting several blog posts that go into detail about some of our 3.2 features. In the meantime, here is the overview.

Cumulus Linux 3.2 includes:

• NCLU: Network Command Line Utility (NCLU) provides users one central point where they can manually drive the system. This new feature both enables network engineers from all backgrounds and retains all the benefits of standardizing on Linux to achieve significant operational efficiency. Learn more about NCLU.
• PIM: Protocol-Independent Multicast enables efficient data distribution over Internet Protocol (IP). With the availability of PIM, you can now build networks utilizing web-scale networking ethos.
• System Snapshots Continue reading

Cumulus Networks customer highlight: Athena Health

Athena Health came to Cumulus Networks looking for a way to bring greater efficiency to their network at an affordable cost. After partnering with our services team, they realized that being a Cumulus Networks customer meant they were getting a lot more than reduced costs.

Athena Health provides a unique all-in-one solution that includes network-enabled electronic health record (EHR), practice management, care coordination, patient engagement, and population health services. Essentially, they help ensure that doctors can focus on their patients rather than administrative work.

If a doctor cannot access a patient’s information due to an issue with Athena’s network, the result could literally be fatal. In the past, the team had leaned on more-traditional technology and skillsets, but scalability was getting too costly. When Athena began exploring their options, they were looking to expand their data center in a cost-effective way. But once they found Cumulus Networks, they realized they didn’t have to sacrifice powerful technology for cost.

After speaking with Athena Health, we knew exactly how we could help. Our experienced services team worked directly with the engineers at Athena to provide hands-on, customized implementation advice in the form of Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) scripts which allow their data Continue reading

How much does web-scale networking cost?

Here at Cumulus Networks, we cannot help but tout our innovative technology, user-friendly features and seamless integrations. Can you blame us for being excited about what we do? But at the end of the day, we know that your business decisions come down to the bottom line. How much will web-scale networking cost my business? What’s the total cost of ownership?

Going web-scale with Cumulus Networks can save your business money on both the cost of Capex and Opex. We created this easy-to-use TCO calculator so you could see your potential cost based on your data center requirements.

Adjust your estimated cost by choosing your rack requirements with the slider

Our total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) calculator was designed using actual customer data. We found that our customers were saving substantially on things like:

• The cost of acquiring open switches and optics
• The ability to leverage existing talent and tools
• OS required for Layer 3 networking
• OS support and integration
• The cost of scalability

One of the biggest contributors to lowering costs with Cumulus Networks is that web-scale architecture with open networking offers choice and flexibility. You can use any brand of ONIE compatible switches and optics. In fact, Cumulus Linux Continue reading

Is web-scale networking secure? This infographic breaks it down.

At Cumulus Networks, we take a lot of pride in the fact that web-scale networking using Cumulus Linux can have an immense impact on an organization’s ability to scale, automate and even reduce costs. However, we know that efficiency and growth are not the only things our customers care about.

In fact, many of our customers are interested first and foremost in the security of web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux. Many conclude that a web-scale, open environment can be even more secure than a closed proprietary one. Keep reading to learn more or scroll to the bottom to check out our infographic “The network security debate: Web-scale vs. traditional networking”

Here are some of the ways web-scale networking with Cumulus Linux keeps your data center switches secure:

• Cumulus Linux uses the same standard secure protocols and procedures as a proprietary vendor: For example, Openssh is used by both traditional closed vendors and Cumulus Linux. The standardized MD5 is used for router authentication, and Cumulus supports management VRF.

• Web-scale networking has more “eyes” on the code with community support: Linux has a large community of developers from different backgrounds and interests supporting the integrity of the code. Since an entire community of Continue reading