Currently in Migration - Jason Edelman's Old Blog
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

Big Switch, Cumulus, and OpenFlow

2/21/2014

4 Comments

 
Two of the three companies promoting white box, now more commonly known as bare metal, switching are Cumulus and Big Switch Networks.  There has been coverage on each of these companies, but the question always arises, “does Cumulus support OpenFlow?”  I had the chance to talk to JR Rivers, Cumulus CEO, at the last Open Networking User Group (ONUG) during a Tech Field Day video and heard the answer from him then, but hadn’t seen anything documented publicly. 
There was a SDN Meetup at Stanford last week where JR gave his take on SDN and a great overview on Cumulus, which happens to be on Vimeo.  More importantly, he touches upon the question regarding OpenFlow support in the Cumulus Linux software stack during the video.

Coming directly from JR, his response (around the 58 minute mark):
“The only way you can truly be successful in meeting the customer needs around OpenFlow is to be truly focused on a great OpenFlow agent that lives on the switch platform.   Trying to come up with a hybrid approach or half approach inevitably end up in unhappy customers… In general, when customers want to use OpenFlow, Cumulus will say, go talk to Big Switch.”  - JR Rivers
On the flipside, this is a similar answer Big Switch Networks gave last year during Network Field Day 6 (watch the first 15 minutes) when asked if they would support L2/L3 and if their OpenFlow agent would run on Cumulus Linux.

Big Switch / Cumulus Summary:  

Cumulus offers Cumulus Linux –  a native Linux distribution based on Debian that offers a traditional L2/L3 stack for bare metal switches.  No OpenFlow.

Big Switch offers Switch Light –a combination of Ubuntu plus an OpenFlow Agent (Indigo) for bare metal switches.  No L2/L3 stack.

These guys are competing for the same budget, but clearly have different technologies.  But since you may find the same switches on their hardware compatibility lists, you could deploy Cumulus Linux today, love it or hate it, and then change out the software being used to Big Switch’s Switch Light (or vice versa) and have a fully different network and operational model, while not touching or swapping out any piece of hardware.  Think about that.

Going back to the JR video, you will notice as JR answered the question around OF support, he pointed at experiences he had while working at Cisco in the early days of OpenFlow.  If what he states is still valid, where does that leave companies trying to develop hybrid solutions like Brocade and HP?  Where does that leave Pica8 that happens to offer two modes of operation on their hardware, one that runs OVS and one that runs a standard L2/L3 (and each mode of operation runs over the same Linux OS).  

Who’s right?  Who’s wrong?  Or at what scale/performance, does it matter?  


Some General Thoughts
  • Watch both videos  – hearing this kind of candidness from JR Rivers and Rob Sherwood is interesting to say the least
  • JR talks about the de-coupling of software and hardware as a necessity for SDN.  While I think de-coupling is inevitable, calling it SDN can be a good debate.  Do we call servers software defined servers?
  • If I had a shot of liquor every time JR said “Fly, Be Free” in this video, I would have passed out half way through.  It’s a great line and really does sum up where the industry is going.  #flybefree
  • Diane Greene was co-founder/CEO of VMware.  She was an early investor in Nicira, but also noteworthy, an investor in Cumulus.  While one could argue that for a true SDDC, VMware would need software stacks in the network overlay and network underlay.  Acquiring Cumulus, would give VMware  just that.  For anyone who things there is a battle between Cisco and VMware now, imagine if VMware did buy Cumulus?
  • Regardless if Cumulus does get acquired, there is still a need for other independent network operating systems, so customers do have choice.
  • Towards the end of the video, there is also a question on in if Cumulus Linux will have other distributions or will run in other parts of the network outside of the data center (WAN, etc.) and even support Fibre Channel.  I’ll let you watch and see how JR answers.


Thanks (and Fly, Be Free),
Jason

Twitter: @jedelman8

4 Comments
Basil
2/23/2014 03:03:02 am

who is the third company promoting white box switches ?

Reply
DMD
2/23/2014 08:27:13 am

Perhaps Pica8?

Reply
Jason Edelman link
2/23/2014 09:45:08 am

Yep, was referring to Pica8 as the 3rd.

Jason Edelman link
2/27/2014 09:32:36 pm

And btw, if you want to include another company that isn't necessarily promoting whitebox, but has an offering for bare metal switching, you can include Dell, since Dell supports running FTOS and Cumulus Linux.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Jason Edelman, Founder of Network to Code, focused on training and services for emerging network technologies. CCIE 15394.  VCDX-NV 167.


    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Top Posts

    The Future of Networking and the Network Engineer

    OpenFlow, vPath, and SDN

    Network Virtualization vs. SDN

    Nexus 7000 FAQ

    Possibilities of OpenFlow/SDN Applications 

    Loved, Hated, but Never Ignored #OpenFlow #SDN

    Software Defined Networking: Cisco Domination to Market Education

    OpenFlow, SDN, and Meraki

    CAPWAP and OpenFlow - thinking outside the box

    Introduction to OpenFlow...for Network Engineers


    Categories

    All
    1cloudroad
    2011
    2960
    40gbe
    7000
    Arista
    Aruba
    Big Switch
    Brocade
    Capwap
    Christmas
    Cisco
    Controller
    Data Center
    Dell Force10
    Embrane
    Extreme
    Fex
    Hadoop
    Hp
    Ibm
    Isr G2
    Juniper
    Limited Lifetime Warranty
    Meraki
    Multicast
    N7k
    Nexus
    Nicira
    Ons
    Opendaylight
    Openflow
    Openstack
    Presidio
    Qsfp
    Quick Facts
    Routeflow
    Sdn
    Sdn Ecosystem
    Security
    Ucs


    Archives

    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011


    RSS Feed


    View my profile on LinkedIn
Photo used under Creative Commons from NASA Goddard Photo and Video