The 2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

2011

The 2011 Data Center

Switching Challenge

New Fabric Solutions Transforming

the Data Center Network

The 2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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Introduction:

New Fabric Solutions

Transform the

Data Center Network

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Professional Opinions Disclaimer: All information presented and opinions expressed in this report represent the current opinions of the author(s) based on professional judgment and best available information at the time of the presentation. Consequently, the information is subject to change, and no liability for advice presented is assumed. Ultimate responsibility for choice of appropriate solutions remains with the reader.

Robin Layland

Layland Consulting

(860) 561 - 4425

[email protected]

Bringing Speed and Intelligence

to the Network Edge with

Smarter Computing Solutions

for the Data Center

...

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The Application Fluent Data Center

Switching Fabric

...

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Data Centers in Transition

...

12

Transform You Business

with QFabric Technology

...

15

Avaya Virtual Enterprise

Network Architecture

...

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New Fabric Solutions

Transform the Data

Center Network

By Robin Layland President Layland Consulting

Data center networks are undergoing a major transformation. For one thing, they must support server

virtualization, which results in an exploding number of virtual machines (VMs) that must be created, managed, configured and secured. Data centers are also seeing intense storage growth with an increasing number of storage devices connecting directly to the data center network. There is also a fundamental shift from user to application traffic patterns (“north-south”) to application-to-application and application-to-server patterns (“east-west”).

To accommodate these changes, data centers must become more cloud-like. That requires running a new Ethernet fabric – a high-throughput, self configuring, low latency and self-healing data center network that automatically forwards traffic over the shortest available path.

That said: Whose solution is right for your data center?

Helping you answer that question is the goal of the 2011 Data Center Switching Challenge. The documents and audio materials will help you understand the implications of these new data center network requirements so you can pinpoint the most appropriate data center vendor and products for your environment. This

introduction and the "Round 2: Panel Discussions" deliver insight into the technical and business challenges that data centers face. The discussions in Round 2 specifically flesh out the concept behind a “fabric", explore the impact of server virtualization, explain multi-path Ethernet and examine latency requirements.

Following this introduction, the challengers’ response papers assist you further in answering the "whose solution?" question. Each data center company describes its primary value proposition and builds a case for why it should be your data center switching vendor. Presenting the participants’ answers as to what makes them “better” than their competition here in one document provides a handy, single-source guide to educate you about how each vendor views the coming transformation and what each uniquely brings to the table.

The Drivers

Four factors are driving the data center network transformation. Some might be currently present in your network, and all will certainly pertain to you within a few years:

 Server virtualization

 Storage Convergence

 East-west traffic patterns

 Growth of VMs and “server sprawl” management

Server Virtualization. Cost savings are fueling the server virtualization craze. Most physical server utilization

averages between 10% and 30%, wasting cycles, power and real estate. Running multiple server images on the same physical server using virtualization, however, greatly reduces the number of physical servers required or at least significantly slows their growth rate. It also allows the data center to run more efficiently. For example, a business might need significantly fewer servers at night or during slow parts of the year. Virtualization allows the number of active physical servers to follow these cycles by growing and shrinking dynamically, saving electrical power and cooling.

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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Convergence of data/storage networks. Storage devices have been appearing on the data center network

more frequently. Network Attached Storage (NAS) came first, followed by Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and ATA over Ethernet (AoE). Next up: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and cloud storage.

Storage on a Fibre Channel storage-area network (SAN) has always been separate from the data network for several good reasons. The data network has historically discarded packets while the SAN provided a lossless environment. The SAN also provides lower or more predictable latency than the data network, which

traditionally hasn’t been engineered to that level of traffic management. The SAN also converges faster than the data network when there isa route failure.

This situation is changing, however: SAN devices will connect to the data network for two big reasons. One is the excess cost of operating separate networks for data and storage. Merging the networks reduces the number of switches and eliminates the costly Fibre Channel interface card on servers for further savings. The second reason for integrating the SAN networks and placing storage on the data center network is flexibility. With server virtualization you don't know physically where the application is going to run. With storage on the data center network, though, the application can always reach its data no matter what physical server it ends up on.

Changing traffic patterns. Historically, network traffic flowed back and forth between users and the

applications running on servers, a pattern now referred to as “north-south traffic.” Though low latency is always desirable, latency requirements were not that difficult to meet with north-south traffic. Data can tolerate moments of delay and buffering without impacting the user experience. A few extra milliseconds weren’t noticed when a WAN was involved.

Applications have been evolving for a long time in the direction of splitting the work between multiple sub-applications running on different servers. A common early example is presentation, application and database servers all performing parts of a transaction workload. This trend is accelerating with the controlling

application sending out a flurry of messages to other applications. Further adding to the traffic volume, applications also access network-connected storage devices for data. All this application-to-application and application-to-storage traffic is “east-west” traffic, because it stays within the data center. North-south traffic, on the other hand, leaves the data center.

Server sprawl. Virtualization allows servers to be created dynamically, without having to pre-plan, order

equipment, wait for it, install it and test it. That allows companies to be far more responsive to quickly changing business resource requirements. By the same token, the situation holds the potential for so many VMs to be created quickly that management of them spirals out of control if proper processes aren’t in place and if policies and networks don’t adapt alongside them.

The Effect

All these drivers create new demands on the data center for flexibility,simplicity, high reliability, performance

and cost containment. Achieving these goals requires simpler data center networks. Dividing the data center with routers and domain-based VLANs worked fine when applications were connected to a static physical server. But with server virtualization and private clouds, applications can move anywhere in the data center. The data center needs to transparently handle this chaos with an architecture that supports it with simplified management.

Flexibility: Virtualized servers are starting and stopping constantly and moving among physical servers.

Having network operations configure all the changes doesn’t work, because there are too many of them. Rather, the network needs to automatically apply the correct VLAN, quality of service (QoS) markings, access control, security and policy to wherever the application lands. When a group plugs in a new server or storage device, the network must quickly understand what it is and how to support it.

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Simplicity: The data center's architecture needs to be simpler. Dividing the data center with routers and

keeping VLAN inside those zones drives up the complexity of managing the data center. Devices need to be able to plug in anywhere and reach any resource in the data center or in other data centers without concerns about how the core of data center is architecture.

Reliability: Data center reliability needs to increase, as well, beyond just switch availability. East-west traffic

depends on every message getting through the first time it’s sent. In other words, networks need to become “lossless,” meaning very few or no packets are discarded. They also need to understand the paths through the network, select the best path and quickly adapt to changes. When there is a failure, the network needs to reconfigure itself around the problem within milliseconds.

Performance and throughput. The network needs to be faster with low latency levels and greater overall

throughput to accommodate east-west traffic patterns. The switches must add only a few microseconds of latency and forward traffic across the path with the fewest hops. Enterprises need a plan for how to support a large number of 1/10 GbE ports with an eye toward migrating to 40/100 GbE that doesn't require a forklift upgrade.

Cost containment. All these changes must be accomplished affordably. The best way is to migrate to a

two-tier network architecture, away from the old three-two-tier structure. This move can save an enterprise a significant capex amount when moving to the new switches and also reduce operating costs.

The Answer

In short, data centers need a new network “fabric.” My definition of a fabric is as follows:

Fabric (ˈfa-brik) n. An integrated data center network that supports servers, storage, appliances and

switches on a large scale. It provides a simple way to reach everything in the data center using location-independent, Layer 2 addressing that creates a flat network among components. It borrows features from routed network including dynamically selecting the shortest and best route for

connections, converges very quickly when the network changes, uses all the links in the network and efficiently handles broadcast and multicast traffic. It has high reliability with very fast convergence when a failure occurs. It minimizes packet discards or is lossless and has extremely low end-to-end latency. It automatically adjusts and applies the right configuration to whatever devices connect to it.

Also called Ethernet Fabric and Data Center Fabric.

There are a lot of moving parts to a data center fabric. It involves a host of standards, including IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB), Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) and Edge Virtual Bridging (802.1Qbg), along with vendor-specific technology to make it all work.

In the pages that follow, Alcatel-Lucent, Arista, Avaya, Brocade, IBM System Networking and Juniper Networks explain why they believe that their fabric solution is the right one for you. I have limited them to three pages to force them to focus on what they feel are the key strategies and solutions behind a successful move to the new data center fabric. They don’t cover every last feature they support in their documents; that doesn’t mean they are unimportant, only that space was limited.

The next step is to ask the vendors questions and have them explain how they can help you implement the new fabric in your data center to meet your performance, security and management requirements.

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Bringing Speed and Intelligence to the

Network Edge with Smarter Computing

Solutions for the Data Center

By Vikram Mehta

Vice President

IBM System

Networking

New technology innovations signal that we are entering a new era of computing — Smarter

Computing. Smarter Computing is made possible by the integration of Big Data, analyzed through

Optimized Systems that are managed as a Cloud. The smarter data center with improved economics of IT can be achieved by connecting servers and storage with a high-speed and intelligent network fabric that is faster, greener, open and easy to manage. In evolving to these next-generation data centers, organizations must scale their infrastructures while minimizing complexity, achieve virtualization and consolidation with the quality of service required for production application workloads and successfully merge data and storage into a single network.

As organizations drive to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructures to reduce costs and manage risk, networking is pivotal to success. Optimizing network performance, availability, adaptability, security, and cost is essential to achieving the maximum benefit from the data center infrastructure. IBM System Networking addresses CIOs‘ key issues, including scalability, density, simplicity, utilization, security, information management and total cost of ownership.

Proven Data Center Networking Solutions Backed by IBM

The value proposition for IBM System Networking is to provide the essential network connectivity solutions under the IBM brand to connect servers to servers, servers to storage and storage to

storage. IBM has expanded the mission of the IBM System Networking business through its acquisition of BLADE Network Technologies. IBM System Networking offers a compelling alternative for clients seeking more efficient data centers with the greatest business value and lowest total cost of ownership for their data center networks. IBM System Networking enables an open, standards-based approach to:

 Simplify management

 Flatten and converge the network

 Optimize and automate virtualization

With over 30 years experience architecting, designing and integrating servers, storage, networks and management solutions in the data center, IBM is a full service provider of networking solutions for dynamic infrastructures. IBM delivers:

 Skills and experience with over 5000 networking professionals worldwide and globally available

service products

 Industry leading systems and network management software

 Robust network security technologies and professional and managed services and network

resiliency consulting and services

Fla en & converge the network, with less devices to manage Optimize & automate virtualization Simplify management Single management pla orm &

less elements to manage Converged network Fl at Ti e rs

Many element managers, many network elements

M u l p le Ti e rs

Mul ple networks

VMs

vSwitch VMs

vSwitch

Access control exposures

VMs

vSwitch VMs

vSwitch

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 Strong partnerships with the leading providers of network hardware, software and tools

 An array of sourcing alternatives for planning, designing, implementing, operating and

maintaining networks

 Global multi-vendor network hardware maintenance and product and services financing.

IBM Smarter Computing solutions equipped with IBM System Networking products bring speed and intelligence to the edge of the network – the essential access, distribution and aggregation layers where servers and storage are connected to the data center network.

Simplify Management

IBM System Networking products enable clients to deploy a Unified FabricArchitecture® (UFA) – a faster, smarter and easy-to-manage data center network fabric designed to reduce the cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data center infrastructure. The standards-based Unified FabricArchitecture allows clients to tie together servers, storage, hypervisors and system networking in a cohesive environment. This ensures that customers that have already invested billions of dollars in their data centers can take advantage of the best innovations in the industry and achieve the lowest possible cost of ownership for their IT infrastructure.

IBM Tivoli Network and Service Assurance software provides visibility, control and automation of all aspects of managing networks and service quality, delivering the foundation of consolidated

operations for dynamic infrastructure management. IBM Tivoli Network Manager is automatic network discovery and topology-based management software designed to help organizations improve network

visibility and drive reliability and performance. BLADEHarmony® Manager is an application for remote

monitoring and management of Unified FabricArchitecture elements.

IBM System Networking supports Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based on the emerging OpenFlow specification from the Open Network Foundation (ONF), which provides an open, standards-based interface to control how data packets are forwarded through the network. With OpenFlow, a network administrator could create on-demand ‗express lanes‘ for voice and data traffic that are time-sensitive. IBM is pleased to be one of the inaugural members of the ONF and the first to demonstrate OpenFlow running on a 10Gb Ethernet switch.

Optimize and Automate Virtualization

An increasingly important part of data center infrastructure is what is sometimes referred to as the ‗virtual edge‘ – where physical and virtual infrastructures overlap, and where the virtualized network extends into the virtual server. Conventional networks lack the virtualization awareness required to ensure that Virtual Machines can migrate from server to server across this virtual edge. What‘s needed is a Virtual Machine-aware approach to network virtualization that can automatically migrate network policies along with VMs as they migrate across different physical servers.

IBM BNT blade and top-of-rack Ethernet switches equipped with VMready® provide the simplicity, flexibility and power to manage the network in these dynamic, highly virtualized data centers. Switch-resident VMready with Virtual Vision is a unique solution that enables the network to be Virtual Machine aware, so that the network can be configured and managed for 1000s of virtual ports (v-ports), rather than just a few physical ports. With VMready, as VMs migrate across physical hosts, so do their network attributes automatically, retaining the same ACLs, QoS and VLAN attributes.

VMready works with all major hypervisors, including VMware, Microsoft‘s Hyper-V, Xen and KVM. Edge Virtual Bridging (EVB) technologies, including the new Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) technologies now being defined by the IEEE 802.1Qbg working group, can make it easier for

businesses to achieve server-network edge virtualization in the data center. In addition to the benefits of automation and open standards, the EVB approach also helps preserve existing IT investments by allowing migration to new, modern systems without having to replace current equipment. IBM is one of the first vendors to ship an EVB-enabled product.

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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Flatten and Converge the Network

Today, virtualization, cloud computing, and high-frequency trading place new demands on the system network fabric to deliver non-stop, ultra low-latency traffic flows. This traffic is increasingly ―east-west‖ in nature to enable machine-to-machine communications versus the ―north-south‖ traffic that

characterizes conventional client/server and Web-based application environments. To deliver this east-west traffic using the most efficient flows, large flat networks are becoming increasingly popular. IBM System Networking solutions overcome the scaling and topology re-convergence problems associated with conventional flat networks by implementing TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) to make Layer 2 networks operate more efficiently by selecting the short and quickest path between servers. IETF is working to approve the TRILL standard in 2011. TRILL sends

encapsulated messages through TRILL-capable switches, known as RBridges or Routing Bridges. The RBridges communicate with each other using the Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) routing protocol, which calculates the most efficient, least-hop path across the network. RBridges are extremely efficient, support multiple paths to servers across large VLANs, and do not require Layer 3 routing overhead or for up-stream switches to be aware of traffic flows.

Typically, servers in data centers are connected with separate adapters and cabling infrastructures to data, storage and server-to-server networks. Different switching fabrics have often been required – Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand. Now, 10 Gigabit Ethernet can provide servers with a single wire for all traffic types. The problem with merging these different infrastructures has always been that Ethernet was a best-effort network that could drop packets or deliver packets out of order when the network is busy, resulting in retransmissions and time-outs. New standards created a new, more capable lossless family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet protocols that overcome the problems. These standards are referred to collectively as Data Center Bridging (DCB). Consolidating to an Ethernet fabric using iSCSI, NFS or FCoE for storage traffic greatly reduces the amount of adapters and cabling required in the data center and drastically lowers both power consumption and the overall cost of administration.

Lossless Ethernet enables a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection that supports data and storage traffic simultaneously, preserving their respective traffic properties. Using IBM BNT® RackSwitch® 10 Gigabit Ethernet products that support Data Center Bridging, iSCSI, NFS and FCoE benefit from the improved performance and reliability provided by a lossless Ethernet fabric. For added flexibility, IBM Virtual Fabric enables the administrator to carve up a single 10 Gigabit server-switch connection into multiple virtual pipes for prioritized application and/or storage traffic.

IBM System Networking Products

IBM System Networking provides 1/10/40 Gigabit Ethernet data center switches and routers in both

top-of-rack and blade server form factors.IBM BNT RackSwitch top-of-rack Ethernet switches are

closely integrated with IBM servers and storage to support dynamic workloads that require high-speed and low-latency performance, such as cloud computing, business analytics and high

performance computing (HPC). IBM System Networking product deployments are nearing 11 million Ethernet switch ports installed in enterprise, federal and public sector data centers worldwide, 3.5 million ports in 2010. Clients recognize the benefits of system networking solutions that enable the combination of best-of-breed components pre-integrated in a rack, yet with an open approach that allows these racks to easily connect into existing core network infrastructures, without the need to ―rip and replace‖ or lose investment in existing infrastructure. To complement IBM BNT networking products, IBM System Networking delivers a broad portfolio of data center switches and routers through IBM‘s OEM partnerships with Brocade, Cisco and Juniper Networks. By leading the industry in technical innovations that are faster, virtual, cooler, open and easy, IBM System Networking‘s BNT Ethernet switch solutions have been adopted by more than half of the Fortune 500 around the world.

For more information, please visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/networking

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Let‘s build a smarter planet, smarter planet, the planet icons, BNT, BLADEHarmony, BLADEOS, Fabric Harmony, iFlow Director, RackSwitch, Smart Server Control, VMready, vNIC, NMotion and Unified FabricArchitecture are trademarks ofInternational Business Machines Corporation inthe United States, other countries or both.Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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The Application

Fluent Data Center

Switching Fabric

By Cliff Grossner

Director

Product Marketing

Data & Security

Solutions

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

The rise of virtualization and cloud computing has made data center switching a critical piece of an enterprise’s overall data center strategy that can only be completely addressed by selection of a best of breed data center switching solution. At the heart of the transformation taking place in the data center is the requirement to deliver a high quality user experience with new applications such as video to new devices such as smart phones and tables. The traditional 3-layer networks designed for a client/server communication model cannot meet the requirements of these new applications and new devices, nor can it address the new requirements of virtualized servers and desktops.

Alcatel-Lucent is providing a unique Application Fluent approach to modern data center switching to maximize the

benefit from virtualization technologies for servers, the desktop, as well as the network. Alcatel-Lucent’s application fluent data center fabric can scale from several hundred to over 14,000 server facing ports while keeping aggregate latency at 5ms and can automatically adapt to virtual machine movement no matter which server virtualization platform is used. Application fluency in the data center includes the transformation of the corporate data center into a private multi-site private cloud by extending layer 2 connectivity between data center sites, and to allow for seamless delivery of public Cloud based services on the corporate network. Figure 1 depicts the path to moving from a client server computing model to achieve application fluency in the data center with two important milestones for corporations: virtualizing the network itself with deployment of a switching fabric followed by convergence of their data and storage networks; with careful selection of a network virtualization technology, such as shortest path bridging (SPB), corporations will then truly be able to benefit from Cloud delivered services.

Figure 1: The Roadmap to an Application Fluent Data Center

Cloud Computing

Switching Technology

• Embedded applications • 40 GigE server ports • 100 GigE links Server Virtualization Switching Technology • Multi-tier switching • High latency • 1 GigE server ports

Network Virtualization Switching Technology • Switching fabric • Low latency • Automatic VM Mobility • 10 GigE server ports

Network Convergence Switching Technology • Loss-Less Ethernet • FiberChanel Over Ethernet • 40 GigE links

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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A New Blueprint for Application Fluent Data Center Switching

Alcatel-Lucent’s data center switching blueprint outlines a set of architectural innovations to deliver application fluency for the data center, consisting of three critical components listed below. An example implementation of the blueprint is shown in Figure 2.

1) The Alcatel-Lucent Virtual Network Profile (vNP). Applications are

managed as services where the network understands each application and the network can automatically adapt to optimize application performance, including automating the movement of virtual machines within the fabric.

2) The Alcatel-Lucent Pod. A dense architectural construct composed of

directly connected top of rack switches where traffic can be delivered between servers without passing through a core switch. A Pod is ideal for server to server traffic with 2 μs port to port latency. In the example sown in Figure 2, with 40GigE uplinks and Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) six OmniSwitch 6900’s can be directly connected to form a Pod with 240 10GigE server facing ports and an oversubscription ratio of 1:1.

3) The Alcatel-Lucent Mesh. Pods can be directly connected to each other

and to core switches to form a mesh that can span multiple data center

sites. The mesh architecture delivers a complete switching fabric that with

just two core switches can bring together more than 14,000 server facing 10G ports with aggregate end-to-end latency of less than five

microseconds1. The mesh also enables virtual data centers that can support defined workgroups or departments,

regardless of location. The direct-connect mesh architecture for low end-to-end latency also enables a high level of resiliency within the mesh. The use of SPB provides full interoperability with data center interconnect technologies for private/public cloud deployments. Storage is also converged onto the same fabric with loss-less Ethernet, Fire Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) or native Fiber Channel interfaces and all switching is done in the fabric with Ethernet Virtual Bridging (EVB).

Figure 2: The Alcatel-Lucent Pod and Mesh

The Alcatel-Lucent Virtual Network Profile (vNP)

The Alcatel-Lucent Virtual Network Profile (vNP), shown below, includes the critical information it needs to understand each application, including provisioning requirements, security profile such as access control rights and VLAN assignment, expected quality of service levels, the priority of the application with respect to other applications, and

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Assuming Server to Server Traffic 70% within a Pod, 20% between Pods and 10% Via Core

Pod

• Any to Any 10/40 GigE connectivity • Virtual Network Profile (vNP) • Fiber Channel over Ethernet

• Network virtualized with SPB • Multi-site private Cloud • Hybrid Cloud services

6900 6900 6900

6900 6900

6900

Over Subscription Rate* 1.8 :1 Power per Server Port

5 Watts # 48U Racks

10 Racks Max Server Ports

(2 Core Switches) 14,400 Max Switching Capacity 169 Tbps 5 μs Aggregate Latency* 240 2 μs Latency Alcatel Lucent

Enterprise Mesh OS10K OS10K

6900 6900 6900 6900 6900 6900 Pod OmniSwitch 6900 OmniSwitch 6850E

vNP

Provisioning Security Profile

Quality of Service

Requirements Priority

Application

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specific latency and jitter requirements. With this knowledge, the vNP can manage applications as services, enabling the network to automatically discover the location of each virtual machine, bind a specific vNP to that virtual machine, and automatically provision the applications, including modifying the network configuration to follow virtual machine moves in a manner that is agnostic to the choice of server virtualization platform. The network will simply detect that a virtual machine has moved by inspecting traffic and react. As an application fluent network, it will also be able to dynamically tune the QoS parameters for the application. Moving forward we can envision a time when the network requests a virtual machine be moved to improve performance when it detects that the latency experienced on average by a virtual machine is outside of required service levels.

The Hybrid Cloud Model

Another key attribute of the Alcatel-Lucent data center switching blueprint is the enablement of the Hybrid Cloud model, depicted below, with public Cloud services seamlessly delivered onto the data center fabric were they can be combined with local services to provide composite application for users. To enable a hybrid cloud model it is important to make technology choices, such as SPB, that will enable the corporate data center to become a multi-site private cloud. This means that the fabric must provide the ability to act as one logical fabric while physically being spread across several corporate data center sites connected by a WAN. With the fabric acting as one entity, it can grow to support many 1,000’s of applications; thus the ability to easily define separate departmental data centers, or virtual data centers, will be important to simplify management and improve security. An application or service can exist in more than one data center and security can be applied differently within each virtual data center and at virtual data center boundaries. Importantly, the virtual data center boundary is adjusted automatically to account for virtual machine movement. The choice of a service provider compatible virtualization technology, such as SPB, and the ability to manage applications as a service with vNP, is essential to enabling a Hybrid Cloud.

Alcatel-Lucent is working to drive the Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) standard for network virtualization as it believes that this is the optimal strategy to enable a hybrid cloud model. SPB has several important advantages over other alternatives:

1) It solves the MAC address explosion issue for internally connected network elements

2) It natively supports the definition of virtual data centers as well as providing individualized QoS treatment for each virtual data center across the WAN

3) It is compatible with Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB), the current protocol used by service providers, delivering efficiencies and allowing for re-use of existing OAM tools.

Alcatel-Lucent is also working to incorporate SPB in its Service Routers – in use by most service providers today - to provide MPLS-VPN and Cloud based services to the enterprise for a seamless end-to-end solution.

Conclusion

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is providing a new approach to networking in the data center – application fluency. Following its application fluent approach, Alcatel-Lucent provides a new blueprint provides a complete data center switching fabric which extends the boundaries of the data center through

virtualization of the network with an innovative “mesh” architecture. Leveraging market leading scalability, low latency and low power consumption, enterprises can move beyond costly client server computing by managing applications as a service across a range of data center deployment models, including multi-site “private” clouds, dedicated virtual data centers and a hybrid cloud that integrates service provider offerings.

For more information about Alcatel-Lucent's solutions described here, please visit:

http://enterprise.alcatel-lucent.com/?solution=NetworkInfrastructure&page=homepage

or call 800 999 9526

•Storage Arrays (SAN)

•Application

•Optimization

•Server Farms

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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Data Centers in Transition

Brocade offers a complete

data center networking

portfolio that provides the

foundation for

next-generation data centers.

By Jason Nolet

Vice President

Product Management,

Data Center and

Enterprise Networking

Brocade

As organizations look for ways to modernize their data centers to meet both current and future business requirements, they are increasingly turning to virtualization and cloud computing. To gain the full benefits of these technologies, organizations need a reliable, high-performance data center networking infrastructure with built-in investment protection. Based on over 15 years of proven data center expertise, Brocade is leading the

way to the virtualized data center and the cloud with the unique Brocade One™ unified network strategy and

architecture.

The data center is arguably the most active and critical segment of today's IT environment in terms of

innovation, strategy, and investment. In particular, it is integral to key initiatives such as the migration of legacy IT infrastructures and architectures to a more flexible, agile cloud model in its various forms-including public, private, and hybrid clouds. One of the key factors driving organizations to migrate to these new, more agile IT architectures is the need to better address the complexities associated with the widespread and accelerating adoption of server virtualization.

More than ever, IT organizations face the reality that they will need to upgrade and modernize their legacy infrastructures to be more dynamic, reliable, and scalable in order to meet the needs of a virtualized data center. Brocade believes that an intelligent, ultra-reliable, and high-performance network infrastructure is fundamental to these next-generation IT architectures because networks are the touch points for all resources available in the data center.

This vision is the driving force behind the Brocade One unified network strategy and its four core value propositions:

 Unmatched simplicity: Reducing complexity and costs is a key IT initiative and one of the motivations for

moving to cloud architectures.

 Non-stop networking: The networks that support cloud architectures must provide high performance and

reliability in order to meet today's stringent service level agreements.

 Investment protection: The ROI for moving to cloud architectures will take too long to achieve if the only

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 Application optimization: Cloud architectures need to support current and emerging applications to be

most effective. A high-performance, intelligent network infrastructure is a critical requirement.

With over 15 years of experience as a pioneer and innovator in the data center networking industry, Brocade has been trusted to network and protect some of the world's most mission-critical information. In fact, more than 90 percent of Global 1000 companies have deployed Brocade technologies and solutions to network their vital computing and storage resources.

Today, Brocade offers a comprehensive data center networking portfolio that includes solutions for storage networking, IP networking, converged networking, and an emerging category called Ethernet fabrics.

Ethernet Fabrics in the Data Center

A truly virtualized data center is the foundation for cloud-based architectures and IT models. In turn, virtualized data centers require agile service delivery vehicles, the ability to add network capacity and services on

demand, and new levels of operational simplicity in network deployment, administration, and monitoring. As such, these new data center networks require the intelligence, performance, and scalability characteristics to manage the inevitable issue of virtual machine sprawl over the next few years. According to industry research, less than a third of all IT workloads ran on virtual machines just two years ago. However, that number is expected to rise to almost two-thirds of all IT workloads being virtualized by the end of 2013.

Brocade is leading the industry effort in this area through the development of new, flatter (Layer 2) Ethernet networks that are specifically designed for virtualized data center environments. This new category of "Ethernet fabrics" combines the familiarity of Ethernet with the data center-hardened reliability and performance

characteristics of fabric technologies such as Fibre Channel. As the global leader for data center fabric innovation and deployment, Brocade has the technical expertise and history to drive the development of Ethernet fabrics.

Brocade has begun this effort through industry-unique Brocade VCS™ technology, which is designed to

improve network utilization, maximize application availability, increase scalability, and dramatically simplify the network architecture in virtualized data centers. Brocade VCS technology is available through a new family of

Ethernet fabric switches, specifically the Brocade VDX™ 6720 Data Center Switch. The combination of

Brocade VCS technology and the Brocade VDX product family provides organizations with a migration path

Logically flattens and collapses network layers Scale edge and manage as if single switch Auto-configuration Centralized or distributed mgmt; end-to-end Self-forming Arbitrary topology Network aware of all members, devices, VMs Masterless control, no reconfiguration VAL interaction No Spanning Tree Protocol

Multi-path, deterministic Auto-healing, non-disruptive

Lossless, low latency Convergence-ready Ethernet Fabric Distributed Intelligence Logical Chassis

Connectivity over Distance, Native Fibre Channel, Security Services, Layer 4-7, etc.

Dynamic Services

Figure 1: Brocade VCS technology provides organizations with a migration path towards cloud-optimized data center network

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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toward cloud-optimized data center networks without making them relinquish their choices in server, hypervisor, and storage technology.

Storage Networks in the Data Center

The migration toward virtualized data centers has created new complexities and placed additional burdens on legacy data center systems and infrastructures. This is particularly true in the case of storage networking systems and data protection processes. Without properly addressing the storage networking requirements within virtualized data centers, organizations can never achieve an IT model where information and applications reside anywhere.

That's why many organizations are turning to a well-known and highly utilized technology to meet their storage networking requirements for virtualized data centers: Fibre Channel. In fact, one customer survey after another indicates that, by an overwhelming margin, Fibre Channel is the preferred storage networking protocol among data center administrators worldwide to network their virtual machines to their enterprise storage systems. This is not surprising since Fibre Channel has been the de facto protocol for connecting physical servers and mainframes to storage systems.

Today, Brocade leads the industry in Fibre Channel technology innovation with the introduction of the first end-to-end 16 Gbps Fibre Channel portfolio for both open systems and FICON environments. These powerful, new solutions—which include the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone, Brocade 6510 Switch, and Brocade 1860 Fabric

Adapter—are now part of the industry's broadest Fibre Channel portfolio, spanning Host Bus Adapters (HBAs)

and Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) to a full range of Fibre Channel switches, directors, and backbones.

Ethernet/IP Networks in the Data Center

The migration to virtualized data centers has had a profound impact on Ethernet/IP networking, the most widely deployed networking technologies inside data centers today. In fact, addressing the network

performance and scalability requirements of server virtualization is one of the primary drivers for the increased adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) in recent years. Server virtualization is also a driver for Ethernet/IP-based technologies such as iSCSI and NAS, which complement Fibre Channel in providing a diverse set of storage connectivity options for virtual machines.

The Ethernet/IP networking industry is now making the transition to even higher-performance solutions through the use of 40 and 100 GbE technologies. These higher-performance solutions are designed to accommodate the massive growth rates that are anticipated for both network traffic and digital data.

Brocade provides a complete IP/Ethernet portfolio for data center networks that includes adapters, switches, routers, and application delivery controllers. These solutions enable next-generation virtualized data centers by delivering cloud-based services that emphasize the use of efficient solution architectures and high levels of operational and energy efficiency that result in cost savings and improved ROI.

Continued Innovation for Best-in-Class Networking Solutions

By continuing to develop leading-edge technologies and solutions, Brocade further reinforces the Brocade One strategy of helping organizations transition to a virtualized world where information and applications reside anywhere. Brocade provides a strategic way to virtualized the data center with forward-thinking solutions built for the business requirements of today and tomorrow.

For more information about Brocade’s solutions described here, please visit:

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TRANSFORM YOUR

BUSINESS WITH QFABRIC

TECHNOLOGY

The New Data Center

Network

By: Calvin Chai

Director, Enterprise

Marketing

Juniper Networks

The Challenge

The role of the network is changing. Cloud computing and the mobile Internet are driving the demand for fast, reliable, and high-performance networks. Workforce demographics are changing as a more technologically savvy generation enters the job market. Once more, the proliferation of devices and applications, mobility and social media have penetrated the business environment—forcing IT to transform from a functional role to a more “strategic” role in the organization. Organizations are now re-evaluating their networks to align IT investments with business strategy in order to stay competitive in the marketplace and grow the business.

How does this impact the data center? Data centers are required to not only grow to keep pace with rapidly escalating business demands, support new application architectures and virtualized environments, and improve the overall user experience, but they are also expected to do so more efficiently and more cost-effectively than ever before. As a result, IT leaders are faced with three critical challenges:

 Will my existing infrastructure fail to support the exponential demand on my network?

 What are the key considerations when evaluating data center solutions?

 What are the critical differences between Juniper Networks® QFabric™ technology and competing

architectures?

Why Simplicity Matters

Existing legacy network architectures are fundamentally complex and by their very nature, difficult to scale as demands on the network increase. This complexity is due to the way data centers have evolved over time. Although they started out simple enough, the growing number of servers and storage devices, combined with the sheer volume of data and information transfer, have led to the creation of multi-tiered tree structures composed of access, aggregation, and core layers required to interconnect the resources.

The result is a highly inefficient infrastructure that is not only expensive to manage and maintain, but also results in slow, highly unpredictable application performance. Up to 50 percent of all ports in today’s data center— typically the most expensive ports—are used to connect switches to other switches, not servers or storage or users. More switch layers mean more devices to manage, with a corresponding geometric increase in the number of device interactions. Due to the legacy multi-tiered network architecture, traffic must first travel north and south, up and down the network “tree” from the access through the aggregation to the core layer and back down again before it reaches its final destination. These extra hops introduce complexity and add latency that severely impacts application performance and in the end, degrade the user’s experience.

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Escalating traffic levels, increasing numbers of applications, and ever growing numbers of users have created the need for an exponential data center that can keep pace with growing business demands. Unfortunately, today’s data center networks are not only too complex, too inefficient, and too slow, but they are also ill-equipped to handle the exponential load. Legacy networks are unable to deliver the performance and flexibility necessary to reliably scale and support the growth of the business.

The New Data Center Network: Simplification with Juniper’s 3-2-1 Network Architecture

Juniper’s revolutionary “3-2-1” data center architecture fundamentally simplifies data center networking. Because switches need to be optimized for virtualization and east-west traffic flows, Juniper’s 3-2-1 data center network architecture eliminates layers of switching to flatten and collapse the

network from today’s three-tier tree structure to two layers to, ultimately,

just one. This simplification is achieved by interconnecting multiple physical switches to create a single, logical device that combines the performance and simplicity of a switch with the connectivity and resiliency of a network. The 3-2-1 data center network architecture reduces complexity and accelerates performance by creating a single, data center-wide fabric that provides any-to-any connectivity between resources. With a simpler architecture that is fast and agile, organizations are able to improve business efficiency and realize significant OpEx and CapEx savings.

The Power of a Network Fabric

With the recent industry buzz on fabrics, what are the differences and why should you care? We define the ideal fabric as one that has fixed interface bandwidth, but infinite internal bandwidth and zero interface-to-interface latency. A true fabric should be designed to solve the problems that we see in the data center today, and as such, need to display the following characteristics:

 Flat—any-to-any connectivity

 Fast—low latency and jitter

 Simple—single logical device

 Scalable—expand without complexity

 Reliable—no packet drops

According to leading analyst firm IDC, if all data centers in

the world removed the aggregation layer from their

three-tier networks, they would collectively save $1 billion in IT spend.

Figure 1: QFabric technology behaves as a single switch, resulting in faster performance

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 Feature rich—L2 and L3 services

The key to 3-2-1 architecture is the fabric technology. Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switches incorporate a Virtual Chassis technology that allows multiple devices to appear, behave, and operate as one. This has allowed many of our customers to flatten and simplify their networks to two tiers today, improving their operational efficiencies, agility, and performance. As data centers continue to grow in scale and performance, QFabric technology is designed to take you to the next level—a single flat tier of switching. This high-performance, non-blocking, and lossless QFabric architecture delivers significantly lower latency than traditional network architectures—crucial for the high-speed communications that define the modern data center. Rather than fragment network and server capacity like traditional data center networks, QFabric technology implements a single, flexible architecture that enables organizations to achieve cloud-like efficiencies and high levels of business agility.

Overall, QFabric technology embodies two key capabilities:

 The ability to treat data center computing, storage, services, and network resources as fully

interchangeable pools that can be dynamically and rapidly partitioned without the infrastructure or the applications knowing details about each other. This is the key to simplicity, efficiency, and security in the

data center.

 The ability to connect the resources to each other at very high speeds with apparently no limitations in the

interconnection except fixed interface bandwidth and a small transit latency. This is the key to high performance as well as further efficiency improvements.

Juniper Networks QFabric networking technology delivers the performance and simplicity of a single switch and the scalability and resilience of a network. The QFabric solution is purpose-built to enable the construction of highly efficient, cost-effective, dynamic, and easy to manage data centers over a wide range of scales using standard off-the-shelf computing, storage, and services elements. QFabric architecture will enable the performance of data centers to be improved at a much faster rate than is possible by relying on performance improvements of the infrastructure elements alone (e.g., Moore’s Law for microprocessors) and over time, deliver “exponential scaling.” QFabric technology enables the entire data center network to be managed as a single switch based on Juniper Networks Junos® operating system, delivering the simplicity and efficiency businesses are looking for. Running a single instance of Junos OS, the QFabric family of products will bring radical change to the data center that will pay dividends for years to come—a distributed intelligence approach that delivers the scalability, resiliency, management simplicity, and operational savings that today’s businesses demand.

Why Juniper

As you evaluate existing multitier architectures against Juniper’s New Data Center Network, keep in mind the

following:

1. Is the fundamental network architecture able to deliver the performance and reliability you need now? 2. Can the architecture easily scale to support a 30% increase in demand as new applications, devices, and

users converge on your network?

3. Will the architecture force you to make trade-offs between performance and cost?

Juniper transforms the networking industry, introducing innovations that are revolutionizing the way enterprises run their business. Juniper offers a faster, simpler, and more secure architecture that fundamentally changes both the economics and experience of the data center network. Over 30,000 enterprise customers worldwide have selected Juniper’s new data center network to streamline their operations, expand their organization, and extend their business geographically.

For more information about the Juniper Networks solutions described here, please visit:

http://www.juniper.net/us/en/solutions/enterprise/data-center

or

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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Avaya Virtual

Enterprise Network

Architecture

Simplifying the design,

deployment, and management

of next generation networks

By Dan DeBacker

Director, Avaya Data

Solutions Architecture

There is no question that networking is becoming more and more complex. In the new era of collaboration, traffic is shifting from best effort to real-time, with applications like video becoming commonplace. Server virtualization is being widely adopted by most enterprises, but having a network that is able to respond to virtual machine activations, deactivations and mobility is proving to be a huge challenge. Not to mention network administrators needing to keep pace with additional devices requiring network connectivity, new applications rolling out, while at the same time meeting higher end user expectations.

The convergence of storage creates cost savings and efficiencies with technologies such as iSCSI, AoE, and FCoE but will increase requirements on the network infrastructure. Emerging standards supporting

Converged Enhanced Ethernet using Data Center Bridging will improve the ease and ability for the continued deployment of converged storage. The implementation of the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is

increasing and is yet another service that will add to the requirements in the Data Center and across the rest of the enterprise. The importance of increased resiliency and performance in the Date Center becomes evident as VDI essentially extends every desktop directly to the Data Center.

The Avaya Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture (VENA) addresses these critical Data Center issues.

What is Avaya VENA?

Avaya VENA is an end-to-end virtualization solution enabling enterprises to build a private cloud infrastructure extensible from the Data Center(s) to the Campus and ultimately to the Branch Office. Avaya VENA offers a flexible solution for the next generation network that can be tailored to fit the business needs of the customer while at the same time offering a smooth migration path to the future.

Today, Avaya VENA comprises five major elements:

• Switch Clustering which offers the industry’s leading solution over the past ten years for delivering

active-active resiliency for dual-homing of switches, servers, and appliances

• The Virtual Services Fabric (VSF) and Virtual Services Networks (VSN) enable network virtualization

through enhanced IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging

• Advanced Ethernet switching platforms for Data Center Core and Top of Rack offering high density

Gigabit/10 Gigabit Ethernet with a clear roadmap to 40/100 Gigabit along with advanced Data Center grade features for convergence and virtualization

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• Authenticated Network Access ensures every connected device is known and appropriately categorized

within the network. This will continue to grow in importance for security, compliance, and the growing number of corporate assets and employee-owned devices

• Unified Management tools allow for easy configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting of the virtualized

environment – including a tighter integration between server virtualization and the network in support of workload mobility with the Avaya Virtualization Provisioning Service

Establishing the Virtualized Data Center Backbone

Creating the Virtual Services Fabric within and between Data Centers enables a highly resilient virtualized backbone infrastructure that maximizes the use of available bandwidth and simplifies the provisioning of the network by enabling a self-aware infrastructure. The Virtual Services Fabric is created by using IEEE standards-based Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). Avaya has added significant flexibility for enabling network services with the addition of several enhancements to SPB. The enhancements provide dual-homing access into the Fabric, routing between Virtual Service Networks, native extension of VRFs, and routing directly over the Fabric with IP

Shortcuts. These layer 3 features have been submitted as IETF drafts maintaining Avaya’s open standards

approach to networking. It is important to choose a standards-based solution guarantying interoperability and ensuring a wide variety of choice to create truly best of breed solutions.

Avaya VENA and specifically the Virtual Services Fabric is empowered by the agility of Virtual Service Networks

(VSN) offers traffic separation and an enhanced layer of security – traffic in one VSN is totally segregated from

traffic in all others. VSNs are created in seconds delivering transparent Layer 2 extensions within and between Data Centers. They offer any to any connectivity and provide significant improvements for supporting the virtualized server environment and more importantly workload mobility. Network administrators now only need light touch or even automated provisioning at the edge of the Fabric to instantiate new applications and services – no need to re-design or make any configuration changes to the core. This simplified provisioning greatly reduces the time-to-service and the potential of the human-error factor by eliminating a significant amount of manual configuration.

Delivering Unprecedented End-to-End Network Availability

A highly resilient and high performance Ethernet infrastructure is the building block of the network. Avaya offers the Virtual Services Platform 9000 next generation modular core switch providing high density Gigabit/10 Gigabit connectivity today and 40/100 Gigabit in the future. The VSP 9000 is a Data Center grade core switch and offers a fully programmable packet processor allowing for new functionality through simple software upgrades – no need to rip and replace hardware. For enterprises with lower density connectivity needs, the Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 and 8600 can be fabric enabled via a software upgrade and provide the Data Center core switching component.

The Virtual Services Platform 7000 is a data center grade next generation Top of Rack switch that complements a two tier infrastructure and offers high density Gigabit/10Gigabit SFP+ interfaces today. Additional 10/40/100 Gigabit and Fibre Channel will be available through media dependent adapters in the future. The VSP 7000 will

2011 Data Center Switching Challenge

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also offer a Multi-Terabit Fabric Interconnect Stack that can be configured horizontally across server racks and provides ultra high bandwidth and ultra low latency for efficient east/west traffic flows between servers.

Providing highly resilient active-active connectivity for switches, servers and appliances into the Virtual Services Fabric is key to application availability. Avaya’s ground-breaking Switch Clustering technology offers this always-on access and eliminates the need for spanning tree. The ability to dual home calways-onnectialways-ons into the Fabric alalways-ong with ensuring sub-second failover provides a significant differentiation for the Avaya solution and adds a required layer of resiliency to the network. Avaya provides this functionality on a variety of Ethernet switching platforms from the Top of Rack to the Core at an unmatched price/performance level.

Providing full visibility into the virtualized Data Center is paramount to simplifying the network. Avaya’s

Virtualization Provisioning Service (VPS) stitches together the network infrastructure and virtualized server environment by providing automated configuration control, monitoring, and tracking of both servers and network. Avaya VPS provides the link between the server and network operations team to ensure seamless connectivity, higher reliability, and a tighter integration of the virtualized Data Center.

A Simpler, More Dynamic and Adaptive Network

By decoupling the network services (logical provisioning) from the physical infrastructure, Avaya VENA creates a more flexible and self-aware network. As the virtualization of the computing environment continues to increase, it is crucial to have a network that is able to quickly adapt to change. Avaya VENA separates the underlying physical network from the services that ride on top of that network, IT managers now have the flexibility to add network capacity, create new services, and complete additions, moves and changes to those services quickly and easily. The result is a simplified network environment that is less error prone with greater flexibility and reliability.

Reduced time–to-service for applications: By making the core of the network transparent and enabling

new services at the edge, IT departments can roll out new applications in minutes rather than days or weeks

Reduced network downtime: According to Yankee Group research, 37% of total network downtime can be

attributed to human error in provisioning. With Avaya VENA’s simplified provisioning the chance of a network outage due to human error is virtually eliminated

Simplified change control: While Avaya VENA will not totally eliminate change control, it will greatly reduce

the process burden. By reducing the number of configuration touch points, the chances of adversely affecting

existing services are nearly zero – no need for teams of application owners to verify existing services, no

need to redesign networks to accommodate new applications, the entire process is streamlined and simplified

Market leading Total Cost of Ownership: Avaya continues to drive down TCO with reduced CAPEX, and

especially OPEX in the form of warranty/maintenance, power consumption, and an architecture that is simple

to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot, thus reducing the operational burden – all which translate into

significant cost savings

Avaya VENA offers the answers to the changing needs of the Enterprise Data Center. All enterprises are looking to do more with less, increase efficiency, become more responsive by reducing time-to-service in order to make IT the enabler and not the inhibitor. Avaya VENA provides a best-in-class infrastructure enabling a virtualized Data Center backbone which is a key foundational component for the Private Cloud addressing the relevant trends facing the enterprise. Avaya VENA is the long term strategy and vision that will enable Enterprise

customers of all sizes the smooth migration into the next generation network infrastructure….what VMware did for server virtualization, Avaya is doing for network virtualization.

For more information about Avaya solutions described here, please visit:

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Cloud Networking

Arista EOS – World’s Most

Advanced Network OS

By Douglas Gourlay

Vice President

Arista Networks

Arista Value Proposition

Arista Networks is singularly focused on the data center switching market, it is all we do. We do not dilute our R&D efforts or product portfolio by trying to build into the campus, WLAN, branch, or metro topologies. We don’t build load balancers, or firewalls, or cute consumer things – we build switches for the most demanding topology in the world – the data center.

We build Arista EOS – the world’s most advanced network operating system. EOS is delivered via a single

system binary that runs across our entire portfolio of switches, from virtual appliances through modular platforms. This operating system is Linux based, and uniquely we allow customers to have root/shell access to the core O/S. This brings thousands of Linux tools and applications into the toolbox of our network user and enables local APIs to be used for true network automation and extensibility.

Arista Network Designs

Arista’s data center network architecture is built on a simplified two-tier network model where all links are active and customers can choose large, flat, Layer-2 networks for VM and workload mobility, or structured, hierarchical, Layer-3 networks for the maximum in density and fault containment. All Arista switches support full Layer-2, Layer-3, and IP Multicast capabilities enabling the maximum deployment flexibility. A single two-tier Arista network can scale up to 18,000 10GbE attached hosts and support any workload requirement.

The progression of virtualized workloads in the data center has meant that workloads are deployed to the most best computing resource available at the time the workload is brought online. This is often done without regards to locality of storage and adjacent workloads and databases. Thus, as the virtualized data center gets built out it often resembles a hard drive prior to ‘defragmentation’ with workloads arranged based on efficiency at the time they were brought online, and not based on simplified transaction paths and locality to required resources. This, when coupled with consolidation of storage I/O, service oriented architectures, and network-based backup and has caused a tremendous increase in ‘east-west’ traffic in the data center.

To support the increased volume of data moving within the data center the traditional campus-based oversubscription ratios must be rethought. No longer can the data center sustain 4:1 box-level oversubscription

at each tier and 3:1 – 5:1 oversubscription between tiers: this leads to an aggregate 64:1 – 200:1 network

oversubscription.

Arista has built a broad family of wirespeed products designed specifically for the data center that bring new architectural technologies to our customers that eliminate Spanning Tree loops, make all links available, and lower the deployment costs of wirespeed data center networks.

Arista Network Architecture Innovations

One of the core Arista technologies is MLAG – Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation. MLAG enables you to design