A cool new approach to networking has emerged today as our friends at Cumulus Networks emerged from stealth-mode to unveil the first Linux OS for datacenter networking.
GigaOM had this to say:
“Super-stealthy startup Cumulus Networks has launched with what could be a hot property in the burgeoning world of open networking gear. The startup, founded in 2010 by two former Cisco engineers, has built a Linux-based operating system for switches.”
While All Things D wrote:
“Combine it [Cumulus] with other SDN technologies like that of Nicira — a onetime AH [Andreessen Horowitz]-backed startup that’s now part of VMware — and you have a reasonable shot of making proprietary hardware obsolete.
Why is that important? Networks become a lot more customizable, and more carefully tuned to the applications running in them. They also get cheaper.”
Finally, here’s our own perspective:
“Managing a web-scale data center requires the agility, speed, and scalability that can only come with automation,” “By presenting a standard Linux interface, Cumulus Linux allows Opscode Chef to manage switches as if they were just another Linux node, delivering the full benefits of automation for networking.” – Jay Wampold, VP of Marketing
Read all about Cumulus’ open approach to networking here.
