Thursday, August 20, 2015

Europe's GEANT Deploys ONOS

GEANT, the European research network formed last year through the integration of the TERENA and DANTE initiatives, has deployed the Open source SDN Network Operating System (ONOS) on its pan-European testbed network. The ONOS installation allows researchers to define, build, test and rebuild highly scalable, high capacity virtual networks quickly, easily and cost-effectively.

Specifically, GEANT is running a new Inter Cluster ONOS Network Application (ICONA) – developed by CREATE-NET and the University of Rome Tor Vergata/CNIT in collaboration with the ONOS project – to efficiently manage the intercommunication of geographically distributed ONOS clusters and deliver faster controller response time during network events such as failures or congested links.

GEANT's GTS network is currently comprised of four points of presence (PoPs) located in Amsterdam, Bratislava, Lubiana and Prague, creating a software-defined network entirely based on OpenFlow. Each external entity (e.g. CREATE-NET and University of Rome) connected to the testbed exposes a "legacy" Border Gateway Protocol (BGP ) router that peers directly with the border router placed in the Amsterdam PoP of the GTS network, thus exchanging IP routes with the rest of the global network IP prefixes. This enables the entities connected to communicate together and with the rest of the universities and the research institutions attached to the global network. In fact, the Amsterdam PoP connects GTS directly with Internet2 in the U.S. Through ONOS' application intent framework, the ONOS clusters are able to provide L2 connectivity between all the "legacy" routers connected at the edge of the network.

"ON.Lab and its ONOS network operating systems are a great example of emergent network paradigms that would be difficult or impossible to test or evaluate at full European scale without the infrastructure provided by the GEANT network and the virtualization capabilities provided by the GEANT Testbeds Service," said Jerry Sobieski, GTS Activity Leader. "We are excited to work with ON.Lab to deploy ONOS across our GTS facilities as this allows us to showcase both the advanced capabilities ONOS delivers as well as the advanced capabilities of our testbed. GEANT's mission is to facilitate this type of leading edge global network research to help deliver the next generation of networking."

"We are very excited to participate in this worldwide SDN testbed deployment," said CREATE-NET Research Director Elio Salvadori. "It gave us the perfect setting to test our ICONA application and it opens up even more opportunities for controlled testing of further SDN apps that we are currently developing on top of ONOS."

"ONOS' deployment on GEANT's GTS is another major milestone for the ONOS project," said Bill Snow, Vice President of Engineering at ON.Lab. "With the GTS connecting to Internet2 in the U.S. and, through them, to South America we now have the best and brightest minds from three continents linked together via pure OpenFlow-based networks running ONOS software. Drawing from a global collaborative community provides us with resources that can't be matched and accelerates the pace of open SDN innovation by providing valuable insight, testing and feedback for ONOS to deliver the benefits of true SDN."

http://www.geant.org
http://www.onlab.us


FIU/AmLight Deploys ONOS and SDN-IP Across the Americas

Florida International University (FIU) has deployed the Open source SDN Network Operating System (ONOS) on Americas Lightpaths (AmLight), creating a software-defined networking (SDN) facility entirely based on OpenFlow. Five Latin American research and education networks (RENs) – Academic Network at Sao Paulo (ANSP), Brazilian National Research and Education Network (RNP), Latin American Advanced Networks Cooperation (RedClara), National University Network of Chile (REUNA) and the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) – interconnect Brazil, Chile and the Caribbean with the U.S. via a virtual slice of the AmLight network.


This implementation takes advantage of AmLight's ability to create virtual network slices using Internet2's FlowSpace Firewall. Symmetrically to a previously announced OpenFlow-based Internet2 ONOS deployment, the AmLight network can communicate with the Internet2 ONOS slice through a shared (legacy) BGP router deployed at FIU in Miami. Through Internet2, AmLight is linked to other ONOS network facilities such as GEANT in Europe.

The solution deployed is able to: provision L3 connectivity without using legacy routers in the network core; transform ASs running OpenFlow into IP (BGP) transit networks; allow an SDN network to seamlessly connect to the rest of the Internet using BGP thus providing a powerful migration strategy; and aggregate different SDN administrative domains into BGP confederations, making the control plane more scalable.

"The deployment of ONOS represents groundbreaking work in the field of SDN and networking," said Dr. Julio Ibarra, Assistant Vice President for Technology Augmented Research at FIU. "We're not just connecting one organization to another, but are connecting a dynamic global software-defined REN to create an open instrument for collaboration. This accelerates research discovery, advances education, and improves the delivery of public services while offering the benefits of ONOS' next-generation networking technology for improved learning, collaboration and innovation."

"The production deployment provides invaluable real-world insight from end users and network engineers, and the testbed aspect of the deployment enables experimentation to further improve and harden ONOS," said Guru Parulkar, Executive Director and Board Member at ON.Lab. "The ONOS project values collaboration with R&E network operators and their users, and the ONOS platform enables R&E network operators to rapidly innovate and better serve their communities."

http://www.fiu.edu
http://www.onlab.us

Kaminario's K2 All-flash Array Goes Under $1/GB with 3D TLC

Kaminario unveiled its K2 v5.5 all-flash primary storage array, bringing the average cost/GB usable to less than $1/GB and introducing 3D TLC drives.

Building on its earlier K2 all-flash array, the new system also includes native array-based replication and the company’s Perpetual Array program, enabling customers to seamlessly phase in new hardware and phase out old to deliver on the evolving needs of enterprise storage.

Kaminario's average price of under $1/GB usable represents a reduction of 50% in the cost/GB from its v5 system introduced in May 2014.

The company said it is also the first vendor to offer 3D MLC NAND, allowing enterprises to double effective capacity to more than 360TB per K-block and scale one K2 array to multiple petabytes in a single rack unit while providing consistent performance. Customers can expect higher data endurance and increased scalability, and therefore the ability to move all active data to all-flash arrays.

“In developing our transformative v5.5 all-flash array, we listened to our customers and kept a close eye on the market trends driving the evolution of the modern data center now and will through the next decade,” said Dani Golan, CEO of Kaminario. “The result is our best K2 yet; a truly dynamic and scalable storage system that allows any business to quickly, and extremely cost efficiently, expand its data center. Our new K2 makes all-flash storage lower cost than hybrid arrays.”

http://kaminario.com/blog/press-releases/kaminario-cuts-flash-storage-costs-less-1gb-introduction-k2-v5-5/

See video:  Kaminario Launches K2 V5.5 - https://youtu.be/VkgyTPVTawY


Mesosphere and Microsoft to port Apache Mesos to Windows Servers

Mesosphere and Microsoft have agreed announced to port Apache Mesos to Windows Servers.

Mesosphere, which is a start-up based in San Francisco, offers a Datacenter Operating System (DCOS) that provides a highly elastic, and highly scalable way of deploying applications, services and big data infrastructure on shared resources. The company is a major contributor to the Apache Mesos project and is the primary organization writing open source services for Mesos.

Mesosphere provides:

  • Application scheduling and scaling
  • Application fault-tolerance and self-healing
  • Under load application prioritization of applications
  • Application service port unification
  • Application service discovery
  • Application service end-point elasticity

https://mesosphere.com/blog/2015/08/20/mesos-everywhere-apache-mesos-for-windows-server/

Seagate to Acquire Dot Hill for SAN Arrays

Seagate agreed to acquire Dot Hill, a supplier of SAN solutions based in Longmont, Colorado, for approximately $694 million ($9.75 per share).

Seagate said Dot Hill’s external storage array-based systems and software products will complement its own storage systems offerings and be offered as part of Seagate’s Cloud Systems and Electronics Solutions business.  Seagate will leverage Dot Hill’s storage technology IP portfolio and software capabilities to drive innovation and provide incremental value to their combined OEM customer base.

“Dot Hill’s innovative storage systems and IP portfolio are a strategic addition to our storage technology portfolio, enabling us to accelerate the growth of Seagate’s OEM-focused cloud storage system and solutions business,” said Phil Brace, President of Cloud Systems and Electronics Solutions at Seagate.  “We are focused on providing the highest quality storage systems for our OEM customers and Dot Hill’s storage solutions will enable us to advance our strategic efforts.  We look forward to welcoming Dot Hill’s strong team, which has proven experience in developing and delivering best-in-class storage solutions that are trusted by the world’s leading IT manufacturers and their channel partners, and we expect the transaction to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal 2016.”

https://www.dothill.com/storage-arrays/overview/

Brocade Posts Q3 Revenue of $552 Million

Brocade reported Q3 revenue of $552 million, up 1% year over year and up 1% sequentially. The company reported GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.21, up from $0.20 in Q3 2014 and up from $0.18 in Q2 2015. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.27 for Q3 2015, up from $0.23 in Q3 2014 and up from $0.22 in Q2 2015.

"I am pleased with our Q3 2015 financial results as we delivered improved profitability and higher revenue year over year," said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade. "Our IP Networking revenue growth of 16% continues to outpace the market with strong performance from both service provider and U.S. federal customers. As the storage market evolves, our SAN business continues to demonstrate the vital role of Fibre Channel as customers connect both traditional disk storage and next-generation flash arrays. Brocade is well positioned with our customers, partners, and products heading into the final quarter of our fiscal year."

Some highlights:

  • SAN product revenue was $309 million, down 5% year over year. The decline was primarily the result of softer demand for embedded and fixed-configuration Fibre Channel switches, partially offset by growth in director revenue. The sequential revenue decline of 1% was consistent with normal fiscal Q3 seasonality.
  • IP Networking product revenue was $154 million, up 16% year over year. The growth was across each product category with router sales up 35%, switch sales up 6%, and higher software networking revenue. The increased revenue year over year was primarily from service providers, up 43%, and U.S. federal, up 32%, partially offset by a decline in enterprise revenue of 3%. Sequentially, IP Networking revenue increased 6% due to higher switch revenue, which was up 26%, as well as higher software networking revenue, partially offset by lower routing revenue, which was down 23% primarily due to the timing of large service provider orders. Q3 2015 included a full quarter of revenue from the virtual application delivery software acquired in Q2 2015. 


http://www.brocade.com