Big Switch Networks rolled out significant updates to its SDN-based Big Monitoring Fabric and Big Cloud Fabric solutions. The enhancements target use cases in security monitoring, network function virtualization (NFV) and IP storage, as well as support for the latest open networking switches.
Big Monitoring Fabric (BMF) is a next-generation network packet broker (NPB) that leverages SDN principles, Open Networking switches and an x86-based DPDK service node to provide feature-rich, scale-out data center monitoring. New capabilities in Big Monitoring Fabric include advanced feature additions to the Big Switch DPDK service node and enhanced network services for out-of-band network monitoring to achieve pervasive network visibility and security. Big Cloud Fabric updates include deeper integration with VMware vSphere, and support for Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8, with a recently completed 300 node scale benchmark validation test with Dell & Red Hat. Big Switch is also announcing support for the latest open networking switches based on Broadcom Trident-II+ and Tomahawk ASICs, including copper 10G (10GbT) and higher-density 64x40G to double the scale of both SDN fabric solutions.
Big Cloud Fabric (BCF) is a leaf/spine SDN fabric promising hyper-scale agility, economics and operational simplicity for OpenStack Platform clouds or VMware virtualization environments. Updates to Big Cloud Fabric include:
- NFV Everywhere — To expand NFV deployments beyond the data center to Central Offices, smaller POPs and remote locations via NEBS support, a new VM controller option and stretched-fabric deployments
- Enhanced VMware vCenter GUI Plug-in — To deliver physical network automation, visibility and now troubleshooting directly from vCenter to simplify provisioning and operations for the cloud/virtualization admin.
- Support for Software-Defined Storage — In addition to traditional IP storage, now supports production deployments with Red Hat Ceph
- Inter-Pod/Inter-DC L2 Extension — Enables tenant services and application mobility across pods and data centers leveraging VXLAN (beta support)
- Expanded SDN Security — Crypto security for SDN control-plane (CPSec) now includes controller-to-vSwitch and controller-to-controller traffic as well as controller-to-pSwitch previously supported
- Container Networking Demonstration — Plug-in for Kubernetes container orchestration to demonstrate network automation, visibility and troubleshooting in Docker container environment
Expanded Support for Open Networking Hardware — Both Big Monitoring Fabric and Big Cloud Fabric to support latest Broadcom Trident-II+ and Tomahawk based Open Networking switches from Dell and Edgecore Networks, including:
- 64x40G: Dell’s S6100 high-density Broadcom Tomahawk-based platform to double 40G fabric scale for both Big Cloud Fabric and Big Monitoring Fabric
- 10GbT: Copper 10G platform (48x10GbT + 6x40G) based on Broadcom Trident-II+ for cost-optimized deployments
- 32x40G and 48x10G + 6x40G: fiber 10G and 40G platforms based on Broadcom Trident-II+
- These platforms are available for beta trials in Q3 2016.