Dell is Changing the Game in Networking

Recently I told you about some exciting developments Dell is driving around Open Networking and our first partnership in this area with Cumulus Networks. Today I am excited to bring to you more game-changing networking solutions that will deliver future-ready IT and optimize businesses for scale-out and cloud-based environments. We are stepping on the gas of enterprise scale-out data centers with our new  Dell Networking Z9500. The Z9500 is the densest, most energy-efficient, and only pay-as-you grow 10/40 GbE data center core switch available. We are making good on our promise to disrupt the networking industry as we demonstrate innovative application of Openflow, enabling Openstack Cloud Administrators easy-to-use programmability with Active Fabric Controller. Additionally, through collaboration with industry partners, such as RedHat, we are able to bring SDN to the carrier market in the form of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) solutions.

To update your data center network architecture to meet the new demands of today’s workloads, we are using standards-based technologies. These technologies will help advance legacy systems, prevent vendor lock-in penalties, and future proof infrastructure for an easier transition to software defined networking (SDN), cloud-based services, and emerging technology approaches like NFV.

Addressing the Challenge of Cost-Effective Scaling – The Dell Networking Z9500 Fabric Switch is the industry’s highest-density fixed-form factor data center switch with a full suite of L2/L3 routing and switching protocols. The Z9500 switch is designed to address data center 1/10/40 GbE aggregation requirements through centralized core or distributed core architectures for high performance enterprise data centers, cloud computing, and provider hosted data centers.. The Dell Networking Z9500 is ideal for workloads such as Web 2.0, high-performance computing and virtualization.

Making the OpenStack Connection – OpenStack and OpenFlow hold significant promise to advance the infrastructure economics, operational and technical capabilities of modern businesses. However, each can be highly complex and difficult for enterprise IT to adopt. Dell Active Fabric Controller is a purpose-built SDN platform, designed to simplify network configurations for IT administrators while enhancing network functions for cloud-based services, across server, storage and networking.From simple plug-and-play device discovery and provisioning, automated topology and forwarding optimization, fabric-wide programmability and a simple operational lifecycle, Dell Active Fabric Controller offers a new vision for networking.  Active Fabric Controller serves a fundamental building block on both enterprise control software as well as a key element of accelerating NFV deployments with its integration into Open Stack.

Delivering Solutions and Accelerating Adoption – We are helping bring innovative NFV solutions to market by spearheading industry consortiums such as CloudNFV and collaborating with industry partners including Red Hat. Just as SDN is increasing network flexibility, reducing costs and driving efficiency within enterprise networks, NFV can equally transform the telecommunications industry by utilizing an open, disaggregated, cloud-based approach.

Dell is committed to changing the game in networking. As a follow on to our recent Open Networking announcement, I’m excited about demonstrating more innovation in bringing new and open solutions to our customers regardless of size. We’re extending our leadership in SDN, NFV, and advanced new architectures that maximize customer choice and provide superior economics to the way networking has always been done.

Join us at Interop next week to hear how our game changing news will positively impact you and your data center. To learn more visit www.dellnetworking.com and continue to share your thoughts with us by following @DellNetworking and @DellEnterprise.

About the Author: Tom Burns