Dell buys into the open-source network
Dell's been involved in serious networking for years, but never quite like this. The Austin, TX PC and server giant is partnering up with Cumulus Networks to deliver Linux-based, bare-metal networking devices.
Cumulus Networks has its own Linux distribution, Cumulus Linux. This Linux is designed to run on top of industry-standard networking hardware. Above it. you can run both Linux- and third-party data center-ready networking applications. It supports port densities ranging from 48x1Gbps (Gigabit per second) ports to wire-rate 32x40Gbps ports on a wide variety of networking switches. Cumulus is also working with Facebook on its Open Compute network switches.
According to Dell, their "vision of the new data center networking model is an open ecosystem where customers can choose among various industry-standard networking gear, network applications and network operating systems to meet their business needs." If that sounds familiar, it should. It comes straight from the Open Compute playbook.
