activereach is a partner to both Cumulus Networks and Mellanox Technologies so it was great to see the recent news that the NVIDIA purchases bring them together under the one banner. Could this be the sign that open networking is about to make a big leap forward in terms of mainstream adoption (something we mentioned in a previous blog)? We think so.
The open networking concept has been hotly debated since the advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Open systems are just starting to disrupt the network industry much as they did the computing industry. Linux and open source are very successful in the compute space, however, open-source has yet to have the same success in networking except in webscale networks and a handful of large organizations.
As we mentioned previously, the appeal of open networking is growing.  One of the biggest reasons for this is the acceleration of digital transformation due to COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic, the way we work, live, learn and play has changed, and so has the way we think of IT.
Open-source networking offers tighter controls of the networking stack, whereas network engineers liked traditional networking as it minimized risk. The network plays a key role in digital transformation as it connects users and data to applications. For some organizations this is fundamental to their business and may even help to provide a competitive advantage.
The open-source community continues to grow, and there are more tools and capabilities than ever before. The data center as we know it is on the verge of massive change, and the network must change along with it. Be at the forefront of these changes and see how you can adopt open networking.
Contact us or call us on 0845 625 9025 to find out how we can help your enterprise transition to open source networking.