SONiC solution

Apstra's next evolution in Intent-Based Networking is aimed at accelerating and simplifying the deployment and operations of SONiC networks.

Wednesday, 18th November 2020 Posted 4 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Apstra has updated its industry-leading data center network automation, validation, and analytics software with significant SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) operational and feature enhancements. The software enhancements eliminate the deployment complexities and operational challenges that were barriers to entry for SONiC.

Apstra has continuously delivered on its SONiC commitment to dramatically increase the speed and reliability of how SONiC networks are deployed and operated in the data center to rapidly meet innovation and business needs. Apstra integrates with SONiC, developed by Microsoft and the Open Compute Project (OCP), to configure and automate for easy deployment and operation in your data center network.

Apstra and SONiC support protocols that are critical to the enterprise space. Now, all enterprise customers will realize the significant benefits and efficiencies of open networking that the hyper-scale and web-scale companies have recognized for years.

Apstra’s latest software release includes:

Commercial single-vendor support for SONiC
Software enhancements focused on stability, scalability, and operations
Functionality enhancements including Data Center Interconnect, Top-of-Rack, and Spine feature parity with commercial network vendors

The above enhancements enable advanced day 0-2 network automation to simplify data center network management dramatically — automating your data center network's build, operations, troubleshooting, and security of SONiC deployments. In doing so, Apstra further empowers enterprises to standardize on a consistent operational model across multiple hardware vendors and network operating systems, including SONiC, Juniper, Arista, Cisco, Cumulus, Dell, and VMware.

"Apstra eliminates the barriers to entry and is a strategic enabler for enterprises deploying and operating SONiC.," said Mansour Karam, Co-Founder, and President of Apstra. "Apstra's software abstracts the switch OS complexity to present a consistent operational model across all switch OS options, including SONiC."

Additionally, the solution combines industry-leading hardware, automation, and analytics, enabling enterprise data center transformations while leveraging open networking to eliminate vendor lock-in. Apstra is a strong advocate of network disaggregation and we are unwavering in our commitment to deliver automated, hardware-independent, turnkey infrastructure operations at scale. Apstra's integration with the latest version of SONiC expands the options for enterprises to deploy data center networks by removing hardware constraints and complexities.

"This software release is the result of listening to our customers and aligning our innovation cycle to meet their needs," said Jeff Jones, Senior Vice President of Sales at Apstra. "It delivers our unparalleled Intent-based automation, validation, and analytics capabilities, that our customers are leveraging today in their Arista, Cisco, Cumulus. Dell, Juniper, and VMware networks to SONIC."