Big Switch Networks
Redefining Hybrid Cloud Networking with Cloud-First Approach

Organizations are undergoing major digital transformation along with modernization of processes and infrastructure. It goes without saying that networking is the lifeblood of any modern enterprise system. With this evolution, telcos and enterprise IT are moving toward a DevOps model by switching application architectures from existing monolithic/multi-tier apps to microservices—highly distributed componentized service-based apps. Containers are emerging as an alternative to existing virtualization technologies to enable DevOps and microservices. Additionally, cloud-first networking (CFN), one of the key component of microservice, introduces a re-imagined networking architecture for hybrid IT, centered on agile, virtual private cloud (VPC) networking best practices, to deliver consistent networking, analytics and machine learning for both public and private cloud infrastructures.

Identifying these trends in the virtualization field, Big Switch Networks, a cloud-first networking company, brings public cloud-style networking and hybrid cloud consistency to organizations around the world. The company provides data center switching, monitoring, visibility and security solutions for on-premises enterprise cloud, public cloud, and multi-cloud environments that enable companies of all sizes to increase their operational efficiency and business agility significantly, while reducing networking costs. Big Switch has strategic partnerships with Dell EMC, HPE, and Edgecore Networks, delivering innovative software on industry-standard open networking hardware. Since its inception, the company has been an active member and contributor to multiple open source communities especially with Red Hat open source platform.

Considering OpenStack’s popularity for building agile, flexible, and efficient cloud solutions, Big Switch has collaborated with Red Hat to offer solutions that leverage cloud-first networking principles to deliver streamlined network operations and dramatic TCO reduction for OpenStack and container-based clouds. “Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage with our Big Cloud Fabric provides a highly scalable, operationally simple, and production-ready solution for deploying NFV OpenStack clouds, as exhibited in the recent deployment at Verizon,” says Douglas Murray, president and CEO of Big Switch Network.

The Big Cloud Fabric/Red Hat Openshift solution offers an integrated and unified physical and virtual networking approach for container environments. The two key components, which glue the BCF to Red Hat OpenShift, are the BCF container orchestration agent and the BCF CNI-based container networking plug-in. The integration of Big Cloud Fabric with Red Hat OpenShift enables simplification and agility of container networking through network automation, deep visibility, and rapid container-to-container troubleshooting. Big Cloud Fabric Enterprise Cloud (BCF-EC) integrates with Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) and Red Hat OpenShift to bring logical, zero-touch networking for on-premise cloud network, leveraging public cloud-style VPC automation and visibility.

For both on-premises and public cloud deployments, based on their networking behaviors Big Switch’s Big Monitoring Fabric (BMF) enables end-to-end visibility and security for applications. BMF combines the functions of traditional NPBs with the intelligence, agility and flexibility of a true SDN fabric. Unlike traditional NPBs, which function box-by-box, BMF acts as a single logical NPB—built with open-hardware networking switches and x86-based data plane development kit (DPDK) Service Nodes, managed from a high-availability controller. It delivers network packets to both passive and active performance and security tools, and allows network and security teams to define delivery policies for each tool. Additionally, it integrates with analytics nodes as well as recorder nodes to provide advanced network telemetry for pervasive security and deeper visibility through a single pane of glass.

Big Switch’s vision and roadmap for an automated and open switching fabric and strong integration with third party platform matches emerging customer needs. Besides, extending the public cloud-networking concept of VPC everywhere offers pervasive network automation and visibility. To conclude, Murray recalls the ethos of the company and says, “BCF truly delivers the benefits of the modern hybrid cloud era: consistent policy, common operational tool-chain, rapid service enablement, and transparent application deployment.”