Infotech Lead Asia: Big Switch Networks, which recently received investment from Intel, has launched its thin switching software platform, Switch Light.
Switch Light, an open source software, can be deployed as a virtual switch for server hypervisors and in merchant silicon-based physical switching platforms (white box switches).
Big Switch Networks is part of five emerging SDN startups which were identified by research firm IDC. The other four emerging SDN startups are Embrane, Midokura, Plexxi and Vello Systems. IDC says these firms will battle for position amongst each other, and against existing players in the evolving SDN market.
In a March 7, 2013, document, Nav Chander, research manager, Telecom Services and Network Infrastructure, IDC, said: “SDN and large-scale network virtualization will become a game shifter, providing important building blocks for delivering future enterprise and hybrid, private, and public cloud services.”
The global SDN market for the enterprise and cloud service provider segments is likely to grow from $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2016. This forecast for the SDN ecosystem includes the associated network infrastructure, SDN applications and control plane solutions, and SDN-related professional services.
Big Switch Networks says Switch Light liberates enterprises from proprietary, closed networking architectures, and accelerates the adoption of OpenFlow-based networking, significantly lowering capital costs.
Initially, Switch Light will be available to run on a range of merchant silicon-based physical switches (Switch Light for Broadcom) and virtual switches (Switch Light for Linux), and will be ported to other data plane devices in the future.
IDC says CSP networking of large data centers will be the first battleground for SDN. Networking datacenters employing SDN-based solutions will be driven by the requirements for hyperscale networked datacenters built by specialist cloud providers like Rackspace, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Additional demand for hyperscale networking datacenters will be generated over time by CSPs like Verizon, AT&T, BT, Orange Business, NTT DATA, SingTel, and Tata Communications. Additionally, CSPs’ ability to embrace new disruptive software platforms will enable multivendor network virtualization.
Switch Light extends Big Switch Networks Open SDN Suite, which includes both open source and commercial solutions for the community and enterprise customers.
“In making our open-source thin switching platform available to the market, we aim to accelerate the development of OpenFlow-based switches, both through ODM and OEM partners, thereby catalyzing the deployment of OpenFlow networks,” said Guido Appenzeller, CEO of Big Switch Networks.
By delivering standards-based switches for data center top-of-rack deployments and spine networks, Accton helps customers reduce the cost of their private and public cloud infrastructures.
George Tchaparian, CTO and senior vice president of Accton Technology, said: “Accton’s Gigabit Ethernet, 10G Ethernet and 40G Ethernet switch hardware products together with Big Switch Networks Switch Light will provide customers with a complete SDN solution that reduces capital and operating costs while enabling more rapid provisioning of new applications and capacity.”
Ambika K
