Johannesburg, 26 Jan 2015
A new open, standards-based SDN (software-defined network) architecture and analytics solution has been launched by Extreme Networks. It is designed to deliver unified management, application analytics and dynamic data centre orchestration for highly virtualised applications.
"It is comprised of innovative hardware, software and SDN architectures that integrate and interoperate seamlessly with each other and existing implementations in order to resolve key data centre challenges faced by our customers," says Martin May, regional director (Africa) at Extreme Networks.
He says the solution is based on Extreme's open, standards-based software-defined architecture (SDA) coupled with advanced virtualisation features in its Extensible Operating System (EXOS).
"Together they create a powerful, flexible ecosystem targeted at enterprise, cloud/service provider and high-performance computing deployments. By taking advantage of best-in-breed hardware and software tools, Extreme's customers can now build open, orchestrated data centres that not only fit any desired configuration, but also integrate seamlessly with existing standards-based networks and equipment," notes May.
Key roles of the new ecosystem, underpinned by Extreme's wireless controller technology, include network management, network access control and application analytics, the benefits of which will help users optimise virtualised data centre infrastructures.
"Fuelled by an open source SDN landscape and the deployment of high-performance, low latency and highly reliable hardware, the ecosystem will also encourage innovation in these areas," notes May.
"In this light, we believe customers could successfully migrate their existing networks to SDN without expensive forklift upgrades. This requires an open, standards-based approach with strong community mindshare and partner support."
He says the new ecosystem brings a number of new technology solution partners (TSPs) into the Extreme orbit. "TSPs form a consortium of technology leaders committed to accelerating IT innovation through open, standards-based and flexible, high-performance network architectures," he explains, adding that the TSP programme focuses on integration, validation and interoperability in the fields of mobility, security, SDN, IT operations, data centre, cloud, analytics and convergence.
Consortium members include Sanbolic, a company that provides a software-defined storage and application scale-out solution for hyper-converged systems, and A10 Networks, whose solution optimises north-south traffic flows in global data centres' interconnect DCI scenarios through VM and topology awareness.
"The A10 Networks solution also improves data centre security by leveraging distributed threat response to protect against suspicious server threats. It also promotes optimal resource utilisation through integration with the Extreme Networks' SDN platform," says May.
Other TSP member companies include Microsoft Palo Alto Networks, AirWatch by VMware and NetOptics IXIA, whose solution works with Purview, an Extreme application sensor designed to scale and simplify the deployment of analytics solutions into virtualised data centre infrastructures.
The new Extreme ecosystem also integrates the Summit X670-G2 Switch - Extreme's top-of-rack switch family available in 48- and 72-port in 1RU 10GbE fixed models.
"Backed by Extreme's customer service teams, this means that almost any solution can be part of a customer's data centre without costly or time-consuming additional development," adds May.
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