Big Switch Networks Ships First Open Software-Defined Networking Product Suite to Accelerate Network Transformation

SDN Embraced by Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs and the SDN Industry’s Largest Partner Ecosystem

Big Switch Networks co-founders: Guido Appenzeller, CEO and Kyle Forster, President Product and Sales (Photo: Business Wire)

PALO ALTO, Calif.--()--Big Switch Networks today announced the general availability of the first Open Software-Defined Networking (SDN) product suite, and the industry’s most open architecture delivering: the largest ecosystem of partners, the broadest range of network applications, and the widest range of deployment options. The Big Switch Open SDN product suite enables customers to quickly adopt new network applications not possible with traditional networks, and is deployed in some of the largest and most innovative production networks.

Big Switch Networks Open SDN focus on open APIs, open standards, and platform-independence has attracted the industry’s largest ecosystem of physical and hypervisor switch, security, cloud orchestration and application partners. Big Switch Networks Open SDN ecosystem partners include: A10 Networks, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Brocade, Canonical, Cariden Technologies, Citrix, Cloudscaling, Coraid, Dell, Endace, Extreme Networks, F5, Fortinet, Gigamon, Infoblox, Juniper Networks, Mellanox Technologies, Microsoft, Mirantis, Nebula, Palo Alto Networks, Piston Cloud Computing, Radware, StackOps, ThreatSTOP, and vArmour. Click here to see Ecosystem Supporting Quotes from the companies listed above.

“SDN is the most disruptive and transformative trend to hit the networking industry in over 20 years and Big Switch Networks Open SDN product suite delivers on the promise of the full potential that we envisioned when we started this company,” said Guido Appenzeller, CEO and co-founder of Big Switch Networks. “Big Switch Networks ecosystem ensures customers the broadest range of choice in physical and virtual infrastructure and applications, coupled with the industry’s only open network application platform. Our Big Virtual Switch network virtualization application enables up to 50% more VMs per rack, resulting in as much as $500K/rack in CAPEX savings and $30K/rack/year OPEX savings, based on a 40 server rack.”

The Big Switch Networks product suite is the only generally available SDN offering that unifies applications and infrastructure across vendors including support for both physical and virtual switches. The suite includes Big Network Controller (BNC), the Open SDN platform for network applications which scales to more than a thousand switches and 250,000 new host connections per second; Big Tap, a unified network monitoring application which provides cost-effective enterprise-wide network visibility; and Big Virtual Switch (BVS), a data center network virtualization application that makes the data center network as agile and dynamic as cloud compute resources, while also driving dramatic increases in compute utilization through automated network provisioning.

Big Virtual Switch supports up to 32,000 Virtual Network Segments, enabling multi-tenancy and workload dynamism at unparalleled scale and simplicity, and offers integration into popular orchestration systems, including OpenStack, CloudStack, Microsoft System Center, and VMware vCenter.

“SDN is enabling a range of applications and bringing new-found agility to what historically has been a closed and inflexible enterprise network architecture,” said Joe Skorupa, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Data Center Convergence, Gartner. “Open APIs, network application suites and support for physical and virtual infrastructure are important to realize the maximum benefits from SDN.”

"Software-defined networking and network virtualization enable more robust, responsive IT infrastructures,” said James Davis, Senior Vice President, Global Network Services, Fidelity Investments.Big Switch Networks Open SDN architecture and the company's commitment to open standards and open APIs, with support across the entire network including physical and virtual infrastructure, provides a long term path to network agility, network innovation, and greater overall utilization."

"We believe SDN has the potential to bring transformational change to the way companies build/manage their network to meet the challenges of highly dynamic and virtualized applications over the next few years,” said Steven Schwartz, Global Head of Telecommunications and Market Data Services at Goldman Sachs and Member of the Board of Directors at ONF. “As fellow members of ONF, we believe the commitment to open architecture, standards and frameworks will be critical to the innovation, adoption and evolution of SDN to address the dynamic needs of the enterprise network.”

Big Virtual Switch dynamically provisions Virtual Network Segments making the network as agile and dynamic as other cloud infrastructure and preserves workload network properties, independent of where the workload is physically located to:

  • Improve compute utilization by 25% to 50%
  • Rescue stranded compute capacity providing up to 50%+ more VMs per rack
  • Improve VM density and drive down power & cooling costs
  • Reduce cost of building out new data center infrastructure
  • Support a range of topologies including: hypervisor switch overlays, physical switches or Hybrid Network Virtualization, which includes any combination of the above

Big Tap delivers monitoring functions to an Open SDN. Big Tap provides cost-effective, enterprise-wide network visibility, optimizing the utility of security tools, performance tools, and network packet brokers:

  • Delivering ubiquitous and continuous Network Visibility
  • Filtering and directing traffic to meet analytical tool needs
  • Leveraging Ethernet Switching efficiency and performance scalability

Big Network Controller is the Open SDN application platform and includes an open programming interface, open core controller based on Floodlight, and open protocols to deliver unified network intelligence, programmability and scalability:

  • Common network abstraction on network infrastructure
  • Normalized policy and functions across fabric
  • Standards-based and open core architecture
  • Enterprise class manageability, scalability and resiliency

Pricing and Availability

  • Big Virtual Switch- Starts under $4200/month- Available Now
  • Big Tap- Starts under $500 month- Available Now
  • Big Network Controller- Starts under $1700/month- Available Now

About Big Switch Networks

Big Switch Networks is the leading Open Software-Defined Networking (SDN) company. Big Switch shipped the first Open Software-Defined Networking product suite, and has built the industry’s most open architecture delivering: the largest ecosystem of partners, the broadest range of network applications, and the widest range of deployment options. Big Switch leverages industry standards and open APIs that enable customers to deploy dynamic and flexible networking applications, including data center network virtualization. Big Switch Networks was founded in 2010 by Guido Appenzeller and Kyle Forster and has raised $39 million from Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Goldman Sachs and others.

For additional information, visit:

http://www.bigswitch.com

@bigswitch

Contacts

Big Switch Networks Contact:
Mari Mineta Clapp, (408) 398-6433
mari@bigswitch.com

Release Summary

Big Switch Networks announced the general availability of the first Open Software-Defined Networking (SDN) product suite, and the industry’s most open architecture delivering: the largest ecosystem

Contacts

Big Switch Networks Contact:
Mari Mineta Clapp, (408) 398-6433
mari@bigswitch.com