HOPKINTON, Mass., Aug. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/
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News Summary:
- 2X the capacity, new Z9264F-ON fixed form-factor fabric switch
accelerates 100GbE adoption for private, public and telco cloud
environments
- Advances Open Networking initiative with support for Dell EMC,
Big Switch Networks, Cumulus Networks and better together solutions
with VMware NSX
- Enables open source communities with hardware options to pair
with open source software packages, Linux Foundation OPX, OCP
SONiC
Full Story:
Dell EMC, a pioneer in Open
Networking, introduces its latest Z-series 100GbE fabric
switch, the Z9264F-ON, doubling its capacity and delivering a
complete set of open solutions for modern enterprise and service
provider data centers.
The new platform, powered by Broadcom's 6.4 Terabit/second
Ethernet switching silicon, StrataXGS® Tomahawk® II, is
purpose-built for high-performance data center spine or fabric
applications, providing ultra-fast network connectivity between
data center racks. Delivering 64 ports of 100GbE in a compact 2RU
form factor, the new Z9264F-ON is ideal for customers seeking to
retire large and costly legacy chassis switching systems while also
accelerating transitions from 40GbE to 100GbE.
"Our enterprise and service provider customers have been
unequivocal in their desire for innovative and Open Networking
solutions for their data center infrastructure," said Tom Burns, senior vice president and general
manager, Dell EMC Networking and Solutions. "The new Z9264F-ON
delivers on that desire, providing our customers with the most
capable 100GbE switching platform in the industry and granting our
customers maximum control over their network spend and their
infrastructure."
Data centers continue to serve as the foundation for IT
operations and service delivery. Investments in these facilities,
whether on premise, hosted, or available as cloud facilities are on
the rise. In all environments, the network is critical for
providing connectivity within and between data center racks,
between data centers themselves, out to the edge and ultimately to
end-users. Coupled with this, the adoption of virtualization and
automation technologies fundamentally changes data center
architectures, driving out layers of equipment and accelerating
connectivity between compute and storage elements. This is evident
across the board from hyper-converged environments all the way to
hyper-scale environments.
The architectural shift is met with a growing requirement among
enterprise and service provider buyers that they be able to make
independent purchasing decisions around the networking hardware and
software that they select. This level of technology disaggregation,
which Dell EMC calls Open Networking, is central to the shift to
software-defined networking (SDN), as networking software options
and capability dramatically increase. The new Z9264F-ON embraces
this new consumption model, offering customers more software
choices, whether commercial or open source, than competing
alternatives opening the doors to greater innovation, greater
savings, and ultimately greater control.
"Dell EMC is helping to transform modern data center networks
with their vision for Open Networking," said Ram Velaga, senior
vice president and general manager, Switch Products at Broadcom,
Inc. "It's exciting to see the momentum building around network
disaggregation, leveraging the industry-leading breadth and
velocity of Broadcom's switch silicon portfolio. We're looking
forward to the success of the new Z9264F-ON platforms, powered by
our StrataXGS Tomahawk II silicon, in delivering peak network
performance to customers along with maximum software choice."
Open Networking and 100GbE – Uncompromising choice and
performance
More than four years ago, Dell EMC challenged the industry
status quo with Open Networking, decoupling the fundamental
hardware and software buildings blocks. Since then, Dell EMC has
transformed its entire product line to adopt this vision granting
customers of all sizes maximum choice and capability from the data
center to the edge. The Z9264F-ON advances this vision, bringing
Open Networking to cutting-edge silicon, enabling denser 100GbE
deployments and faster data centers overall.
"2018 is looking to be a big year for 100GbE adoption in the
data center with market forecasts projecting port shipments to
almost triple by end of the year," said Sameh Boujelbene, Senior
Director at Dell'Oro Group. "We see the rapid transition from 40GbE
to 100GbE combined with an increased adoption of fixed form-factor
system fueling the growth. Given these conditions, the new
Z9264F-ON is well-timed and the Open Networking proposition
uniquely positioned."
Alternative commercial offerings with equivalent densities are
only available in 'closed' configurations restricting use with only
that supplier's software. This naturally limits choice, but more
importantly, capability. Open Networking unlocks those
restrictions, unlocking critical capabilities and value.
"Customers are looking for ways to massively simplify and scale
operations, while balancing the important shift to hybrid cloud,"
said Douglas Murray, CEO of Big
Switch Networks. "We are proud of the partnership between Dell EMC
and Big Switch, and believe our Cloud-First software and Dell EMC's
new Z9264F-ON is a winning combination for our joint
customers."
"Cumulus Networks embodies Open Networking and continues to push
the next frontier with Dell EMC," said Josh
Leslie, CEO of Cumulus Networks. "Our combined vision
enables faster, more capable networks by pairing Cumulus Linux and
NetQ software with the new Z9264F-ON. Open alternatives, with
proven scalability, flexibility and economics, deliver a real
alternative to expensive and rigid proprietary solutions."
The Z9264F-ON combined with either Dell EMC or partner software
enable highly flexibly and capable physical network infrastructure.
In modern data centers, the physical networks are unified with
virtual networks to connect virtual machines and containers and to
form a software-defined data center. To achieve this, Dell EMC
partners closely with VMware, providing 'better together' solutions
to streamline costs and operations.
"The Virtual Cloud Network, built using VMware NSX, enables
customers to create an end-to-end software-based network
architecture that is ubiquitous, open, programmable, secure by
default, and can deliver services to applications and data,
regardless of location," said Peder
Ulander, vice president of product marketing, Networking and
Security Business Unit, VMware. "With the new Z9264-ON from Dell
EMC, customers can deploy a high-performance and open network
infrastructure to support their Virtual Cloud Network."
Open source and 100GbE– Accelerating community adoption and
development
Open source networking technologies are rapidly gaining in
maturity due to a number of open source projects sponsored by
developer communities and network operators. These emerging
software alternatives naturally require an underlying open hardware
platform. This makes the Z9264F a perfect fit for that purpose.
With the Z9264F-ON, customers can elect to run Dell EMC's OS10 Open
Edition package which is based on the Linux Foundation's OpenSwitch
software or alternatively download freely available versions of
OpenSwitch or SONiC from the Open Compute Project. This introduces
a whole new set of capabilities and communities to drive ongoing
innovation and collaboration.
"Open source software and Open Networking hardware go
hand-in-hand," said Paul
Parker-Johnson, principal analyst, ACG Research. "According
to our recent study, we expect the data center switching and
routing market to grow from $8.1
billion in 2018 to $19.9
billion in 2023, reflecting continued growth in cloud
provider infrastructures as well as new sources of demand in
enterprise and service provider 'edge cloud'
deployments. Open source networking software and
hardware will play a significant role in these deployments,
growing at a compound rate of 40% through 2023, earning a 15%
share by that date."
"We are excited to see Dell EMC take a leadership role in the
area of open source networking, and in particular, the OpenSwitch
initiative," said Arpit Joshipura,
general manager, Networking and Orchestration at The Linux
Foundation. "Open innovation at peak speeds is what the industry is
demanding and we are excited that the community is stepping up to
meet the challenge."
Availability:
The Dell EMC Z9264F-ON will be on display at VMworld-Americas
(August 26-30, Las Vegas, NV) and will begin shipping
worldwide on Aug. 31, 2018.
Additional Resources:
- Dell EMC Z9264F-ON product page
- IDC whitepaper: How Network Disaggregation Facilitates
Datacenter and IT Modernization
- 100GbE for the Open Networking Era
- Dell EMC Networking
- Connect with Dell EMC via Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN.
Dell EMC
Dell EMC, a part of Dell Technologies, enables organizations to
modernize, automate and transform their data center using
industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage and
data protection technologies. This provides a trusted
foundation for businesses to transform IT, through the creation of
a hybrid cloud, and transform their business through the creation
of cloud-native applications and big data solutions. Dell EMC
services customers across 180 countries – including 98 percent of
the Fortune 500 – with the industry's most comprehensive and
innovative portfolio from edge to core to cloud.
Copyright © 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights
Reserved. Dell, EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell
Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks
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