Dell announces open source networking solutions using SONiC

Dell Technologies is announcing Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies, a new set of fully supported open source networking solutions that help enterprises modernize and simplify the operations and management of their data centers.

As organizations increasingly rely on modern hybrid cloud models to do business, the historically monolithic and proprietary approach to networking has created inefficiencies and unneeded complexity. Dell Technologiesis building off the work Microsoft spearheaded as part of the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) open source project. By integrating SONiC into the DNA of Dell EMC PowerSwitch Open Networking hardware, Enterprise SONiC creates an agile and flexible network, built on open standards, to support any size workload.

“Our customers tell us, while a hybrid cloud approach is critical to their success, they struggle to maintain and scale their networks and manage them to avoid multiple points of failure,” said Tom Burns, senior vice president and general manager, Dell Technologies Integrated Products & Solutions. “By breaking switch software into multiple, containerized components, we are providing enterprises the means to drastically simplify the management of massive and complex networks and offer reliable networking performance in a cloud model.”

With commercial-grade support for SONiC, cloud providers and large enterprises have a new level of production-tested tools, services and support that previously required significant internal investment technology support teams. It gives customers support for full-stack solutions with enterprise capabilities and advanced functionality beyond the base SONiC distribution.

Dell offers a broad selection of open network operating systems. Customers can choose the hardware and software platform that best matches their priorities and take advantage of the benefits open source innovation without sacrificing support, security or ease of integration into their own IT environments.

Yousef Khalidi, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure Networking, Microsoft Corp. said, “SONiC is a leading open-source network switch OS, empowering customers with modern and efficient cloud networking software. We’re pleased to see Dell bringing enterprise support to their customers.”

“Dell Technologies has introduced a commercially-supported version of SONiC, offering tight integration to other Dell solutions and a clear roadmap designed, to not only support the hyperscalers of the world but also larger enterprises. As Dell continues to help customers with its open networking portfolio, its SONiC solution provides those organizations that have lacked the resources to adopt open source solutions the ability to take advantage of flexible, open source architectures,” said Bob Laliberte, senior analyst and practice director, ESG