Metaswitch Aims Project Calico's Layer 3 Routing at Cloud Data Centers

Metaswitch Networks announced Project Calico -  an open source solution for virtual networking in hyper-scale, cloud data centers.

Unlike networking alternatives such as VXLAN, GRE and SDN-controlled flows, Project Calico aims to leverage Internet core routing and route discovery techniques, namely the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), to scale data center networks. Calico promises tight integration with cloud operating systems, such as OpenStack, thereby providing the framework for orchestrated IP routing in between virtual machines (VMs) and host machines, along with intra and inter-data center interconnects.

Metaswitch is contributing the initial code base for Project Calico. Technology partners include 6Wind, Canonical and Flynn.

“The largest Internet-based companies in the world are building hyper-scale data centers that are virtualizing at Layer 3, and that approach makes a lot of sense,” says Martin Taylor, Metaswitch’s chief technical officer. “With Project Calico, we’ve made it possible to build cloud connectivity so that it looks a lot like Internet connectivity. Project Calico integrates seamlessly with the cloud orchestration system, such as OpenStack, to enable secure IP communication between virtual machines and, in doing so, it provides an approach to virtual networking that is scalable, efficient and simple.”

“While we focus on data plane acceleration to enable NFV, the scalability of virtual network control plane solutions must also be addressed. Project Calico appears to address this scalability, enabling [virtualized network functions] VNFs to communicate without the complexity and limitations of VLANs or overlay schemes,” says Eric Carmès, founder and CEO of 6WIND. "Our 6WINDGate packet processing software complements Project Calico by accelerating Layer 3 forwarding so as to deliver the highest data plane performance, adding another dimension of scalability to the solution."

http://www.metaswitch.com/news/press-releases/2014/metaswitch-networks-announces-project-calico
http://projectcalico.org