Extreme SDN Architecture & Development Platform Launch FAQ

Transcription

1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Extreme SDN Architecture & Development Platform Launch FAQ What is Extreme Networks Announcing? First, we are announcing that Extreme Networks has joined OpenDaylight in order to accelerate the delivery of an open, standards-based and comprehensive SDN platform and solution ecosystem. This initiative will evolve today s data center orchestration, automation and provisioning to also include the mobile campus and application analytics. This solution is part of the Extreme Networks SDN architecture that accelerates application innovation and reduces risks for the whole network (Wi-Fi, Campus and Data Center). We do this through a modular, open and standards-based development environment as well as turn-key solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure and avoid architecture lock-in. The architecture will include existing SDN solutions (OneFabric Control Center, OneFabric Connect, several integrated 3rd party apps, and EXOS with its OpenFlow and insite SDK) and an OpenDaylight Controller that is hardened and enhanced. This means existing customers will be able to evolve to the bigger and better architecture and new development partners will be able to start developing apps on our architecture with maximum flexibility for innovation and success Secondly we are now an OpenDaylight member with a development program to leverage US Ignite in order to build on our existing SDN Connect partner development program. Finally, we are announcing the Extreme Networks SDN Innovation Challenge, a contest for developers building new applications. The contest details will be available in September, but right now there are first, second and third prizes of $5000, $3000, and $2000 respectively. There will be a web site with more details announced on June 25th. Why is Extreme Networks Participating in OpenDaylight? OpenDaylight is an open source project that aims to accelerate the adoption of SDN. By participating in OpenDaylight Extreme will not only gain awareness as a serious player in the SDN market, but will also be able to participate in all OpenDaylight activities and potentially contribute code and increase our leadership role. Most importantly, this participation ensures that our solution is open source and accessible to SDN application developers worldwide. Why Does This Matter? As a leader and pioneer in the networking industry, Extreme networks continues to play an influential role in the future of networking. As a trusted network provider we continue to represent our customers best interests in the architecture, design, and development of their future networks. What Value Does Extreme Networks Bring to OpenDaylight? In the near future we will be providing a tested and hardened version of the OpenDaylight controller that will make it more reliable on Extreme Networks equipment. We may share this code. Additionally our expertise in wireless, policy, analytics, and security applications will expand the knowledge base of the OpenDaylight community. What Value Will Extreme Networks Customers Get by Your Inclusion in the OpenDaylight Consortium? Our customers will benefit because of the superior products that we will continue to build and knowledge we acquire so that we can educate and consult them on the upcoming OpenDaylight changes, new applications and best practices that will further save them money and increase their abilities to innovate. They will also know that we are actively participating and contributing to an open body whose goal is to make SDN open and interoperable between vendors. Are You Releasing Our Own Controller? If so, When? Yes, we will release the Extreme Networks OneController. In September, 2014 we will make this available to developers pretty much what we get from OpenDaylight. Later we will have a hardened version that will be integrated with OneFabric Connect. Subsequent versions of the OneController will also integrate other Extreme Networks software solutions such as: The IdentiFi wireless controller functionality, NAC, and Purview. This will open our software to the greater development community and allow other SDN compliant third parties to control these as well. SDN FAQ 1

2 Are You Supporting Other Controller Platforms Today? Yes, we are also supporting our OneFabric SDN which is not a controller (in the OpenFlow SDN sense) but provides management and control functions. In addition, our OpenFlowbased switches can be controlled by other controllers today, but we don t support those controllers as they are supported by their respective vendors. Can Extreme Networks Customers Use a Downloaded Version of the OpenDaylight Controller With Extreme Networks Switches Today (and Which Ones)? Yes, any switch that has OpenFlow 1.0 enabled in XOS can be used with the controller from OpenDaylight. EOS switches integrate with OpenDaylight via SNMP, but that functionality has not yet been validated. Note that customers can download controllers for OpenDaylight, but in late September 2014 developers will also be able to get a version from Extreme Networks. Is the OpenDaylight Software Being Integrated Into Existing Software Solutions Like NetSight? Our OpenDaylight-based OneController will encompass the controllers for Purview, NAC, and IdentiFI. NetSight is an application that runs on top of this controller. The OneController license does not include licenses for any other products - they are sold separately. What Is Your Vision Around Northbound APIs and Southbound APIs? Southbound is for brownfield/interoperability. We will be supporting Openflow and a myriad of others. Our goal is to maximize operability across multi-vendor devices. Northbound is more important to developers who want to develop their own apps. We will be working with developers to drive standardization. We will develop the mindshare that will allow the development community to innovate. Are You Supporting OpenFlow/ Southbound on All Extreme Networks Switches? We are currently supporting OpenFlow on all switches running XOS and we will eventually extend that capability to all Extreme Networks switches. How Will the S-Series and K-Series Switches Participate in OpenDaylight? OpenDaylight allows a multitude of southbound protocols including OpenFlow and SNMP. Due to this, it s not necessary to limit the capability of OneController to just OpenFlow enabled switches. Conversely, it is not required to support OpenFlow on S & K or any other legacy switch as we plan to provide Controller plugins to that will allow them to integrate into OneController and OpenDaylight via SNMP and other protocols. Nevertheless, both switches are OpenFlow-ready. Will All Currently Supported Northbound API s Be Supported in the Future? Yes, as well as any new ones developed by Extreme Networks, our customers or developers in the open-source community. What is the US Ignite Event? US Ignite s Application Summit gives developers, industry, communities, government, foundations and universities working with software defined networks (SDN), cloud computing and gigabit networks a place to gather, learn and showcase their work. US ignite is a non-profit, public-private partnership whose mission is to make the US the world leader in applications and services for ultra-fast, software-defined networks. Why Are You Participating? We are promoting our platform to the attending developers and inviting them to develop SDN applications using our solution. To this end we are hosting a workshop, announcing our new SDN platform and kicking off the Extreme Networks Innovation Challenge. What is the Contest You Are Announcing? Extreme Networks in partnership with US Ignite announces Extreme Networks SDN Innovation Challenge. The challenge will award prizes for applications that leverage a software defined network architecture and its interfaces to make SDN FAQ 2

3 a difference in the US Ignite areas of education, public safety, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, transportation, e-government, the Internet of Things, and clean energy. What Are the Prizes? Based on scoring by an expert panel of judges, Extreme Networks will award prize money to winners at the top 3 spots: Grand Winner: $5,000 First Runner-Up: $3000 Second Runner-Up: $2000 For more details on the Extreme Networks SDN Innovation Challenge, please visit sdn-innovation-challenge/ Who Owns the Intellectual Property of the Developed Code? The developer will own the intellectual property of all code they develop. Do You Expect Applications Created to Be Used on Any Other OpenDaylight Enabled Network? Yes, that s the whole point of our solution being both open and standards-based When Will the Product Be Ready? The developer version will be available in September of 2014 and General Availability is targeted for the end of What Are the Benefits of the Extreme Networks SDN Solution? Flexibility that allows the customer to choose - We are leveraging both open and standards-based protocols, and application programming interfaces (APIs), such as OpenDaylight and OpenFlow and combining industryleading Extreme Networks solutions including EXOS and OneFabric Connect SDN, as well as many predefined applications that are already available and deployed. Simplicity via unified OS and SDN controller in a multiplatform environment Full integration with OpenDaylight by developing plug-ins for our management tools (such as NetSight) and hardening the overall OpenDaylight offering for increased reliability. Adding additional applications (NAC, Purview, wireless, session management, etc.) that extend the benefits of SDN beyond the basic functions offered by most providers. Unifying Network Management as well as network access control, network optimization and advanced application analytics to the same SDN solution. This is all managed through a simple, single-pane-of-glass GUI front-end for the whole network including the wireless edge, campus and data center. Investment protections Extreme Networks open and standards-based SDN solutions allow customers to easily trial and deploy new services regardless of who develops or provides them. Works with existing network in order to protect your investment. Modular, standards-based architecture reduces uncertainty, variability, unpredictability and overall cost enabling choice and letting customers select their own best-in-breed solution. What is OneFabric Connect? OneFabric Connect provides Northbound APIs to integrate OneFabric Control Center (NetSight, Mobile IAM and NAC) with other IT solutions, management systems and databases (CMDB s, etc.), MDM solutions, NG Firewalls, Web Filtering solutions etc. What Does the Extreme Networks SDN Solution Consist of? The Extreme Networks SDN architecture accelerates application innovation and reduces risks for the entire network, including wireless, campus and data center. We do this through a modular, open and standards-based development environment (as well as turn-key solutions) that integrates with existing infrastructure and avoid architecture lock-in. This architecture includes our existing SDN solutions: 1. OneFabric Control Center 2. OneFabric Connect (with many integrated 3rd-party applications) 3. EXOS with its OpenFlow and insite SDK 4. A hardened and enhanced OpenDaylight Controller This means existing Extreme customers will be able to immediately take advantage of this solution and also seamlessly evolve to integrate new SDN applications in the future. As well, new development partners will be able to start developing applications on our architecture with maximum flexibility for innovation and success. SDN FAQ 3

4 What Is the Extreme Networks SDN Advantage? As mentioned above, there s a lot of hype in the SDN market today and network operators are wise to weigh their options carefully when considering and SDN solution. However, there are a number of things that make Extreme Networks stand out from the crowd. We offer: One Open and Standards-Based Architecture that won t require vendor lock-in or additional investment to realize the full potential of SDN A Simple Development Platform for innovation that makes it easy for any organization to deploy SDN solutions regardless of size or skill level Investment Protection as our SDN solutions not only integrate with other Extreme solutions but also support multi-vendor environments Value-Added Network Services like Purview, NAC, NetSight, OneFabric Connect, etc. that provide functionality beyond SDN A Comprehensive Solution for the whole network including wireless, campus, core and data center Unique Core-Flow Technology that provides the industry s most scalable flow-aware data plane so your SDN deployments scale to meet your growth A Broad SDN Partner and Developer Ecosystem that includes over 40 established technology partners as well as the entire OpenDaylight development community The Industry s Leading Insourced Customer Support so you can take advantage of our expertise and experience with SDN you don t have to do it alone! The result is a clear set of benefits Extreme Networks customers enjoy: Performance Improved application performance, faster workload provisioning and an optimized network Security Network, devices, data in flight, and at rest peace of mind Single Pane of Glass Management A simplified and consistent user experience providing a better user experience with lower operational costs Visibility Fine-grained, pervasive and actionable information on network status and usage that enables operators to make fast and intelligent business decisions Compatibility Brownfield, multi-vendor support for seamless migration from on-premises networking to the cloud, resulting in a faster and higher return on investment Trust A long history of SDN innovation as well as a proven and validated SDN Platform with significant mindshare in the development community A Deployment Choice of existing integrated applications, applications that are custom developed and/or applications that leverage the thriving SDN application development community SDN FAQ 4

5 What Are the Differentiators of the Extreme Networks SDN Solution? Extreme Networks has been developing SDN like functions for years with our, software-defined architecture or SDA and flowbased networking solutions. This experience has given us a deep understanding of SDN requirements and architectures. Not only are our SDN solutions proven with real customers, they also take advantage of Extreme Network s proven technology innovations. The Extreme Networks solutions provide additional value by leveraging our proven technology in operating systems (XOS and EOS), SDN (OneFabric Connect, OpenFlow and OpenStack), network and policy management (Netsight, NAC), wireless (IdentiFi) and advanced network analytics (Purview). Today you don t buy all of your software from Oracle or Microsoft or SalesForce or IBM, etc. In an SDN world it won t be any different. You won t buy all of your SDN software from just Extreme Networks, or HP or Dell or Vmware or Cisco either. Extreme Networks is different because of how we are focused on implementing our industry standard open-ness platform to enable the customer to have choice of buying the industry leading solutions to address their needs. For customers convenience and simplicity, we will have our own SDN solution but we won t disadvantage other solutions for the purpose of steering customers to lock-in to our own; unlike what our competitors are doing which is to use open standards to lure in the customer, then trap them within a vendor-centric, closed lock-in solution. Other advantages we have include industry leading Network management and business analytics which include NetSight, NAC and Purview by providing a single pane of glass integrated into the solution it means existing infrastructures can harness the benefits of these solutions. Finally, out insourced customer support is unique in the market. Since SDN is about costs savings and innovation having a group of resources that knows your network and always capable of helping you is critical. What Are Some Examples of Customers Using the Extreme Networks SDN Solution? Henry Ford Health System: In partnership with Airwatch we implemented an enterprise mobility solution for an organization with more than 23,000 employees, including more than 1,200 physicians practicing in over 40 specialties. The result of this SDN automation was full visibility and control of mobile devices accessing the network, thus enabling a better experience for physicians, administrators and patients. All this was accomplished with less time spent on onboarding, a consistent user experience and a dramatic reduction in trouble tickets. Charite Healthcare: This major European hospital maintains over 600 VMs in a vsphere environment and was struggling to manage each virtual machine and device each with its own set of provisioning and security requirements. Extreme Networks provided the SDN automation necessary to appropriately provision and secure each device. The automated allocation of resources as well as the appropriate provisioning and securing each device enabled the IT team to quickly and efficiently deliver new applications to 44,000 Access Ports via the Extreme Networks network infrastructure. Uniklinik (University Hospital) Leipzig: Like Charite, UKL has over 400 VMs in a vsphere environment was experiencing challenges managing each virtual machine and device with their own set of provisioning and security requirements. Extreme Networks provided the SDN automation level necessary to appropriately provision and secure them. An IaaS provider in APAC: Extreme Networks provided network orchestration via OpenStack, network management and OpenDaylight thus offering multi-tenant network management. Other features provided include network management, security, configuration, OpenStack, controller and both stackable and chassis switching. A European Service Provider: Extreme Networks provided multi-tenant network configuration & management as well as orchestration via OpenStack, all integrating with their existing cloud management solution. Additional features supported include HA on network management and hardware-based routing SDN Research & Education in APAC: This university implemented an Extreme Networks-based SDN Research & Education Platform in order to develop new applications and test interoperability with other networking equipment. What Are Some Other Use Cases for Extreme Networks SDN Solution? Dynamic Service Insertion: The Purview network analytics product provides both advanced Business Intelligence as well as a unique level of insight into how the network is being used. However, Purview can require a very specific networking. SDN provides the method for the Purview controller to dynamically insert itself into the traffic flow in order to get the traffic samples it requires. Captive web portals (for registration, authentication, remediation, etc) can register themselves in the SDN infrastructure and transparently redirect http traffic to themselves after being inserted in the network and registered with the controller. VoIP recorders can use Lync-type integrations to request receiving specific VoIP calls for recording and/or monitoring. NFV/Dynamic Traffic Workflow: Graphic UIs can allow the customer to define which workflow the traffic is going to follow in the network, from router to firewall, mirrored to IDS, phone location information available for E911 service, etcetera, all using graphic interfaces, and point and click technologies. SDN FAQ 5

6 Multi-Terabyte Security: Security appliances, firewalls, IDS, content filters, anti-ddos and other security applications can make better use of their intelligence by offloading filtering features to the network. The security appliance can insert itself in the flow-creating logic of the controller and create, deny or modify flows as required by the security policy. The security policy is enforced at the network edge, increasing the effective security perimeter and the security appliances can focus on the rule set and security intelligence instead of the forwarding, thus opening the field for new security vendors that scale thanks to the network and not through their own means. Business applications: Applications can request specific parameters from the networks, for example a HFT application can request shortest time routing parameters instead of the traditional shortest path. A backup application can be configured with the highest bandwidth available routing parameters. The application doesn t need to be aware of the underlying SDN capabilities, the previous traffic classes can be assigned by an end-system/application based configuration environment and a generalized policy framework that defines how the these traffic classes are implemented by the network in terms of flows or statistics. Generalized Video Distribution: SDN can help overcome the limitations and complexities of current multicast deployments. Video is usually complex to implement in traditional networks and it is most challenging if it requires multicast for its distribution. The flow management tools in SDN can simplify the distribution of multicast video by converging all of the topology management tasks onto the controller. This makes video distribution a simpler deployment case with a broader set of parameters to route the video like bandwidth available, minimum delay, etc. OverScaled Networks: SDN can also solve IP/Ethernet scaling factors such as the size of the broadcast domain in software. The application of these is immediate in redundancy (no loops, no spanning tree, not even EAPS) so one full protocol layer can be omitted. Combine that with the addition of ARP proxies and multicast relays in the network on top of the controller or as additional entities using NFV or registration technologies that allow scaling L2 domains beyond what traditional IP networking common sense allows. This will simplify the design of networks and make them available to a broader set of companies by requiring fewer skills and a cheaper learning curve as well as the resurgence of storage protocols and other business application that only operate decently in L2 environments. Network as a Service (NaaS): Since the SDN controller can abstract the entire network and provide the services to the traffic by flow manipulation, there is no limit to creating Network as a Service or any other XaaS, just as we now receive mobile services. A carrier can manage the controller and the network abstraction for a customer, other providers can plug their services, security, clean pipes, QoS, content proximity, cloud networking, backup, etc. by federating their SDN applications with the home controller. Free Network Services: We all pay for network services today, but SDN allows an unparalleled visibility on top of the network traffic. That visibility can be turned into information and that information can be turned into revenue. Network providers could provide free network services in exchange for that information, depending on particular market segments or business models. The Facebook of networking is possible. Wireless: Integrate 3rd Party Applications to further enhance the IdentiFi wirelss solution through Extreme Networks OneFabric Connect, a proven SDN solution that provides limitless integrations including Mobile Device Management (MDM), firewall, virtual hypervisor, unified communications, and more. Cloud Networking: Cloud provisioning is the most timeconsuming part of managing a cloud-based network especially in today s multi-tenant environment. SDN can automate client change requests and reduce manual provisioning, thus lowering operating costs. Automated Orchestration: Load balancing is a key requirement for large networks and SDN can identify various traffic types (internet, server, high-priority, etc.) and orchestrate them automatically to ensure the optimum traffic path and automatically load balance the network. Additional use cases that will be demonstrated at US Ignite 2014 include: Network Virtualization utilizing VTN Data Center and Cloud Orchestration utilizing OpenStack Network Visualization utilizing HyperGlance Policy and Service Chaining utilizing Waypoint Redirection Service with Network Affinity Who Are Some SDN Infrastructure and Application Providers That You Currently Integrate With? VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, Palo Alto, Airwatch, MobileIron, iboss, Splunk, Lightspeed Systems, Polycom, Unify, Avaya, Cisco, Brocade and many others. Where Can I Get More Information on the Extreme Networks SDN Solution? For more information on the Extreme Networks SDN solution please see our web site: SDN/ SDN FAQ 6

7 How will Applications I Have Written with OpenDaylight on the Extreme Networks September Release Work with the Release that Integrates Extreme Networks Software: NAC, Wireless, Purview, etc? The SDN solution is backwards compatible and will support existing applications as well as future ones. Do I Have to Replace My Existing Network to Move to SDN? Not with Extreme Networks the whole point of our open and standards-based model is to avoid vendor lock-in and protect your existing investment in your network. Is SDN Really Being Used in Networks Today or Is It a Bunch of Hype? Yes, SDN is really in use in networks today. Aside from the Extreme Networks customers listed elsewhere in this FAQ, 30% of those surveyed by Network World have already implemented SDN and that number is expected to go up to 43% over the next 3 years: Source: center/ network-worlds-2014-state-of-the-network- survey.html Do I Need a Datacenter to Deploy SDN? No, SDN has a wide variety of use cases for all networking applications, not just data center. I m a Developer - How do I Get Started? Join our upcoming online developer forum which will be launched in September of You can sign up to receive updates at What Products Are You Announcing at This Time? The SDN architecture, platform and controller which will be initially available for developers at the end of September We are also announcing the Extreme Networks SDN Innovation Challenge as well as a roadmap outlining our future SDN vision. How is the Solution Managed? Is NetSight Required? Yes, NetSight will be the NMS system on top of the controller, but note that this solution can also work without the network management piece depending upon the customer s requirements. Do You Have Professional Services to Help the Customer Make the Move to SDN? Yes, professional services will be available as well as our existing Xkit and OneFabric Connect Central online developer forums. SDN FAQ 7

8 Is SDN Just for Cloud/Service Providers? No, SDN is applicable across the entire enterprise network while NFV is usually more applicable to service providers. The Extreme Networks SDN Architecture supports both SDN and NFV. Is the Hardened Open Daylight Controller a Physical Piece of Hardware that You Will Be Selling? No, the hardened OpenDaylight controller is software that can run on any network appliance capable of running a VM solution. Technology Q&A What is SDN? Definition from Open Networking Foundation: Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging architecture that is dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable, making it ideal for the high-bandwidth, dynamic nature of today s applications. This architecture decouples the network control and forwarding functions enabling the network control to become directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted for applications and network services. The OpenFlow protocol is a foundational element for building SDN solutions. What is OpenFlow? Definition from SDN Central: OpenFlow is considered the first software-defined networking (SDN) standard. It defines the open communications protocol in SDNs that enables the Controller to interact with the forwarding plane and make adjustments to the network, so it can better adapt to changing business requirements. With OpenFlow, entries can be added and removed to the internal flow-table of switches and potentially routers to make the network more responsive to real-time traffic demands. Any device that would like to participate in this environment must support OpenFlow with a standardized interface. This interface exposes the internal workings of the device, which enables the Controller to push down changes to the flowtable. Once the devices are OpenFlow-enabled, network administrators can use them to partition traffic, control flows for optimal performance, and start testing new configurations and applications. What is OpenDaylight (ODL)? Definition from OpenDaylight.org: OpenDaylight is a collaborative, open source project to advance Software-Defined Networking (SDN). OpenDaylight is a community-led, open, industry-supported framework, consisting of code and blueprints, for accelerating adoption, fostering new innovation, reducing risk and creating a more transparent approach to Software-Defined Networking. What is NFV? Definition from SDN Central: Network functions Virtualization (NFV) offers a new way to design, deploy and manage networking services. NFV decouples the network functions, such as network address translation (NAT), firewalling, intrusion detection, domain name service (DNS), caching, etc., from proprietary hardware appliances, so they can run in software. It s designed to consolidate and deliver the networking components needed to support a fully virtualized infrastructure including virtual servers, storage and even other networks. It utilizes standard IT virtualization technologies that run on high-volume service, switch and storage hardware to virtualize network functions. It is applicable to any data plane processing or control plane function in both wired and wireless network infrastructures. What is an API? An application programing interface (API) is an interface that provides the tools and services necessary to allow various third party applications to interact with each other through welldefined interfaces. The interface is accessible through standardsbased coding environments such as SOAP/XML. The API acts as an interface between various applications and allows developers to share data and services without actually getting into or understanding the underlying code or software of the applications. Phone Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Extreme Networks and the Extreme Networks logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are the property of their respective owners. For additional information on Extreme Networks Trademarks please see Specifications and product availability are subject to change without notice SDN FAQ 8