For many companies, the networking between their data centre and campus networks has become too complicated to effectively use all the tools and features that are available in the space. That’s why Cumulus Networks is announcing Cumulus Linux and NetQ, two new pieces of software that aim to simplify campus network architectures.
Enterprises are now seeking to leverage automation, DevOps practices including Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), deeper network visibility and standards-based infrastructure with a two-tier leaf-spine architecture within their campus environments. By modernising the campus network, Cumulus Networks says that it provides a single fabric to remove complexity, simplify operations and improve reliability and performance.
Campus networks have traditionally been hindered by complexity, legacy architectures and a myriad of unnecessary features. Together, Cumulus Networks and Dell EMC says that they will be able to simplify campus network architectures by offering a uniform operating model that streamlines operations through automation and orchestration, reduces operational expenses by minimising time to troubleshoot, and eliminates costly support renewals from legacy vendors.
“Our 1,800 enterprise customers have made it clear that they want the ability to use the same tools for automation, orchestration and management for their Cumulus Networks data centers and extend the benefits to their campus networks. This opens the door to a simplified network that is open, feature-rich, flexible and resilient,” said Partho Mishra, president and chief product officer at Cumulus Networks.
Cumulus is announcing an extension into campus networks including several critical features available today:
- 802.1x for authentication and security
- Automation
- Power over Ethernet (PoE)
- 1G and MultiGig campus switches
- Voice VLAN
- L2/L3 switching
- MLAG
- EVPN/VXLAN
“As a biodiversity institute, our IT department needs to support a large range of business processes, so it’s vital to choose a network solution that is as simple and flexible as possible. With Cumulus, we’ve taken a DevOps approach in deploying and managing our own network,” said David Heijkamp, head of IT, Naturalis.
“Cumulus allows us to apply the monitoring and automation tools we’re familiar with in our data center to the campus network.
“We introduced Cumulus at the same time as we were building a new museum. We had to deploy the network in a very short space of time, and Cumulus was critical to the success of this. We simply pushed the known working code to the switches, had coffee, and 20 minutes later it was done!
“Cumulus Linux has brought a positive change to our IT department and makes our work with our campus network much easier.”
“To keep pace with a multi-cloud world, the entire spectrum of IT infrastructure — from edge to core to cloud — is moving to open, automated, software-defined solutions,” added Drew Schulke, VP product management, Dell EMC Networking.
“Cumulus Linux, on top of Dell EMC PowerSwitch hardware solutions, gives our joint customers new options when it comes to building modern, scalable, flexible and efficient campus network fabrics.”
