Dell, VMware, and Cumulus Networks intend to accelerate the adoption of network virtualisation and open networking in the software-defined datacentre with the launch of a joint solution at VMworld 2014.
The companies have merged VMware’s NSX network virtualisation platform with Cumulus Linux on Dell’s networking switches, claiming the end product will give enterprise customers and service providers holistic management provisioning of a complete datacentre networking environment.
Dell claims this marks a transition from rigid, proprietary networking solutions to flexible, open, simple and agile networking via speed networks, boosting service provisioning time which accelerates application deployment time.
It also said customers will be able to leverage network virtualisation, isolation and segmentation to implement application and client multi-tenancy, and improve performance and quality of service with automatic detection and isolation of application-specific flows.
451 Research network research director, Peter Christy, said the partnership “brings a potentially important vendor to VMware’s NSX because of Dell’s Open Networking initiative with the integration of Cumulus Linux software.”
Also commenting on the move, IDC datacentre networks research director, Brad Casemore, said: “For network virtualisation to reach broadly into all addressable enterprise markets – from the largest enterprises to mid-size companies – it is essential that a strong vendor ecosystem delivers complete solutions that can be easily procured, deployed, managed, and supported.”
Meeting the midmarket
Dell and VMware have also collaborated to provide a converged infrastructure solution to midmarket companies with limited IT staff and strained budgets.
The solution features VMware NSX running on Dell’s servers, networking, and storage infrastructure.
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Dell’s converged infrastructure includes its PowerEdge M1000e server blade chassis, 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) MXL blade switch, S4810 Top of Rack switch, S6000 fabric switches, and iSCSI arrays.
Both the VMware NSX running on Cumulus Linux as well as the converged infrastructure are available for order from Dell.
