SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 17, 2016) - Big Switch Networks®, the leader in bringing hyperscale-inspired networking to data centers worldwide, today announced it will demo Big Monitoring Fabric™ and Big Cloud Fabric™ solutions, which operate on Dell EMC Open Networking switches, at Booth F4 at Dell EMC World in Austin, Texas, October 18th - 20th.
"Dell has been a long-standing partner for Big Switch as customers leverage Dell Open Networking to outfit their data centers with next-generation technologies," said Douglas Murray, CEO, Big Switch Networks. "Through our joint solutions, we are able to provide our customers with the best options for their specific needs, including SDN-based data center fabric optimized for VMware workloads, scalable, high performance OpenStack NFV deployments at Verizon and other leading service providers, next-generation out-of-band network monitoring, and a scalable SDN service-chaining fabric for DMZ security."
Big Switch has two solutions that work with multiple Dell EMC Open Networking Switches, Big Cloud Fabric, an open Software-defined networking (SDN) fabric and Big Monitoring Fabric, a next-generation out-of-band network visibility fabric and inline software-based service chaining security fabric. The combination of Dell EMC hardware switch technology with Big Switch's open SDN fabric solutions brings together the advanced feature sets enabled by SDN software with the industry service assurance provided by Dell EMC Open Networking switches (see Gartner's Is Brite-box Switching Switching Right for Everyone?)
"Dell EMC's Open Networking strategy is centered around customer choice. Through our collaborative solutions with Big Switch Networks, we help provide customers the best options to fit their specific needs," said Tom Burns, SVP and GM, Dell EMC Networking, Enterprise Infrastructure & Service Provider Solutions. "Our work with Big Switch is a prime example of our focus in bringing next-generation, flexible, open networking solutions to our joint customers."
This partnership offers Dell EMC enterprise customers the ability to achieve significant cost savings and operational efficiencies compared to traditional networking solutions. One such customer is National Instruments, the global leader in test, measurement, and control solutions, to equip engineers and scientists with systems that accelerate productivity, innovation, and discovery. National Instruments' modernized network infrastructure is deployed on Dell EMC Open Networking and Big Cloud Fabric, utilizing a core and pod, leaf/spine architecture inspired by hyperscale players. According to ACG Research this design delivers agility to the networking team and enables applications to get deployed 4x times faster, troubleshooting to be completed 12 times faster, and upgrades to become automated, completed without downtime (see ACG research report under Supporting Materials).
"We expect that our decision to deploy a joint solution from Dell EMC and Big Switch Networks will provide us with order of magnitude improvements in network agility and automation," said Jonathan LaChance, National Instruments. "Our initial deployment, which will scale to 18 switches in a leaf/spine pod has been seamless, with initial stand up of the network completed in minutes through the Big Switch SDN controller. This solution represents a significant step forward in network management and agility."
American Fidelity, a family-owned life and health insurance company based in the U.S., is another joint customer between Dell EMC and Big Switch Networks. The customer had experienced network challenges with its traditional vendor, and was actively looking to the market for a new architecture that would deliver on the promise of SDN: agility, greater operational simplicity, and greater network visibility. By deploying Dell EMC Open Networking switches, VMware NSX overlay software and a Big Cloud Fabric physical fabric underlay, American Fidelity was able to dramatically simplify network operations and reduce CapEx. Big Cloud Fabric integration to vCenter provides physical network visibility and enables end to end troubleshooting across the network virtualization layer, down to the Layer 2/3 physical network, and automates the physical network configuration propagated from NSX down through Big Cloud Fabric to the Dell EMC leaf and spine switches via the Big Cloud Fabric controller.
"The solution from Dell EMC, VMware and Big Switch Networks has helped us radically modernize our network," said Ryan Riffle, Network Manager, American Fidelity. "This solution was initially appealing because it allowed us to build a bespoke solution that catered to our specific needs, it was easy, we've had incredible support from the Dell EMC and Big Switch teams and the CapEx savings it provides were immediate and are ongoing."
Open Networking switches offer an innovative disaggregated-hardware/software solution for data center networking. These joint solutions give customers the power to transform their networks and accelerate data-center innovation with simplified, high-capacity network fabrics. Designed to ease network fabric orchestration and automation, Dell EMC Open Networking switch solutions are cost-effective, easy to deploy and provide a clear path to SDN by partnering with Big Switch Networks.
Big Switch supports high performance, Broadcom merchant silicon-based Ethernet switches from Dell EMC Open Networking, including:
- 32x100G: Dell EMC's Z9100-ON high-density Broadcom Tomahawk-based platform for 100G fabric with Big Monitoring Fabric
- 64x40G: Dell EMC's S6100-ON high-density Broadcom Tomahawk-based platform to double 40G fabric scale with both Big Cloud Fabric and Big Monitoring Fabric
- 32x40G: Dell EMC's S6010-ON Trident II+ based platform for 40G fabric with both Big Cloud Fabric and Big Monitoring Fabric
- 48x10G + 6x40G: Dell EMC's S4048-ON Trident II-based platform for 10G fabric with both Big Cloud Fabric and Big Monitoring Fabric
Big Switch Networks was one of the first SDN technology partners for Dell Networking, when the company announced its Open Networking disaggregated hardware and software initiative in 2014. Big Switch and Dell have been working together for more than two years offering joint networking "brite-box" SDN solutions to end users. While hyperscalers like Facebook, Google and Amazon Web Services have led the way in adopting white-box switching, enterprise buyers prefer to buy from known, trusted vendors because they want the service and support that comes with the trusted brand name. The open networking approach that Dell EMC and Big Switch provides affords the customer choice along with order of magnitude improvements in network manageability, along with significant savings on CapEx and OpEx.
In early 2016 Big Switch announced $48.5M Series C funding, which included participation from existing and new investors, and brings the company's total funding to $89 million. The company now has multiple customer deals in excess of $1M+, with customers based across the U.S., APAC and EMEA regions, in verticals including tech, financial services, government, telecom, and higher education. Customers include Verizon (shared between Dell Technologies, Red Hat and Big Switch), the U.S. Federal Government, Intuit, Clemson University, CleanSafeCloud, U2 Cloud, 10 of the 15 largest telcos in the world, multiple global financial services firms, media companies, and a Fortune 5 oil & gas company.
SUPPORTING MATERIALS
Joint Solutions Brief: Big Cloud Fabric and Dell Open Networking
Joint Solutions Brief: Accelerating SDN Monitoring Networks in Enterprise Datacenters
Research report: ESG Lab Review: Big Switch Networks and Dell: Big Cloud Fabric
Research report: The Economic Advantages of Open SDN Fabrics
Case study: U2 Cloud: One seamless solution supports it all
Video: Verizon NFV Deployment with Dell, Red Hat and Big Switch
ABOUT BIG SWITCH NETWORKS
Big Switch Networks is the market leader in bringing hyperscale-inspired data center networking technologies to a mainstream data center audience. The company is taking three key hyperscale technologies -- OEM/ODM bare-metal and open Ethernet switch hardware, sophisticated SDN control software, and core-and-pod data center designs -- and leveraging them in fit-for-purpose products designed for use in enterprises, cloud providers, and service providers. The company's Big Monitoring Fabric is a feature-rich next-generation Network Packet Broker to monitor and protect existing networks, Inline Mode is the industry's first security DMZ service chaining solution, and Big Cloud Fabric is the industry's most advanced open networking switching fabric intended for new data center pods such as OpenStack private cloud, VMware NSX, big data, and VDI. For additional information, email info@bigswitch.com, follow @bigswitch, or visit www.bigswitch.com.
Big Switch Networks, Big Cloud Fabric, Big Monitoring Fabric, Big Chain, Switch Light OS, and Switch Light VX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Big Switch Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Technologies Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.
The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between Dell, EMC and any other organization.
Contact Information:
Media & Analyst Contact
Kate Lehman
kate.lehman@bigswitch.com