I love the idea of this, but I imagine it will end up with a shoddy open source clone of IOS for a number of years until the big boys start contributing their code for efficiency reasons like has happened with Linux in recent years. Switches have been disproportionately priced for what they offer for a long time compared to server hardware and I think Cisco and others are in for a shock once this builds momentum.
HP flicks white box switch: NOT a Facebook wannabe? Stuff our open kit in your cloud
Less than a week after Cisco's John Chambers dismissed the “white box” switch category, HP has entered that market with its own open architecture switches. The company wants to start with “web scale” cloud operators who don't want to imitate Facebook or Google and run up their own systems from scratch. However, according to …
COMMENTS
-
-
-
Friday 20th February 2015 12:47 GMT Lusty
Perhaps they were 2nd in numbers of units, but I certainly wouldn't consider them a serious network company and see very few core networks using HP switches. They are often used for ROBO and access switching due to cost though. They may even be second on revenue but then half of their network line up includes rebadged kit. I only used IOS as an example because most low end network pros learn via the Cisco exam route and hence know the command set. What I meant was that just as Linux used to completely mimic Windows, Mac and others this probably will too for a while.
-
-
Thursday 19th February 2015 21:18 GMT LindsayHill
I would not describe it as a "shoddy open source clone of IOS" - there's a lot more going on here with Cumulus.
L3 (BGP, OSPF, etc) is using Quagga, which is the only part that looks something like IOS. The rest of the configuration is mostly using standard Linux tools & configs, although Cumulus is improving some of this - see their work with ifupdown2. The good thing is that they're contributing this code back.
In terms of speed/efficiency, core forwarding is still done using the same merchant silicon - i.e. it's not dependent upon software quality/efficiency.
Disclaimer: I attended NFD9 last week, where Cumulus was presenting. They indirectly covered my costs to attend, but did not pay me.
-