Open Network Featured Article

Open networking models have many benefits, one of which is the total cost of ownership (TCO). And according to a new analyst report by ACG Research, highlighted by Dell (News - Alert) EMC, it can be up to 53 percent. As Dell EMC World 2017 Conference runs through May 11, the company has introduced new products and services that are making use of open technologies and software based solutions to improve performance across the IT infrastructure for small- and medium-sized organizations, as well as large enterprises.

The announcements by Dell EMC (News - Alert) includes a first in the industry, with a 25GbE Open Networking top-of-rack switch delivering more than 2x in-rack throughput of 10GbE switches, raising switching speed limits. Another first for the company is its optimized open networking platform for unified storage network switching with support for 16Gb/32Gb fiber channel. And a new family of energy-efficient and cost-effective open networking switches to deliver workforce transformation for small- and medium-sized organizations.

Dell EMC is making open networking and the opportunities it provides available to its customers so they can transform their IT operations with new digital capabilities while at the same time lowering IT costs and getting faster return on their investments. This digital transformation requires modernizing, automating and changing operating models with flexible network architectures so they can react to changing market, customer and business conditions with minimal disruption and lower capital expenditure.

Tom Burns, senior vice president, Networking, Enterprise Infrastructure & Service Provider, Dell EMC, says this is made more practical with open networking because it gives customers of any size more choice and capability. He goes on to say, "By disaggregating networking system software, and by decoupling networking software from hardware platforms, companies can free themselves from the rigid and proprietary environments of yesterday to embrace software-defined principles and unlock innovation at any scale."

In addition to the TCO, the ACG Research also revealed the capital expenditures, five-year operating expenditures and new application or service creation of an open architecture POD (OAP) for one particular Tier 1 service provider were lower across the board by a considerable margin. Dell EMC attributed these improvements to the advantages open sources provides in component hardware and software designs along with extensive automation based on open standards, as well as standard application programming interfaces (APIs) and information models.

The switches announced by the company include the new S5100-ON (News - Alert) series and S4100-ON series, which will be shipping with OS10 Enterprise Edition, Dell EMC's new flagship networking operating system. The OS is a next-generation, modular and programmable network OS designed for traditional networking and DevOps environments based on open source technologies from the Linux Foundation (News - Alert) and Open Compute Project. There is also another new family of switches for campus environments that are of energy-efficient and cost-effective called the N1100-ON series.

The new hardware are being launched with new services, including the Dell EMC Services Jump-start Networking Solutions, NFV Advisory Services and IoT Technology Advisory Service to help organization fully leverage the technology the company provides.

The IoT Technology Advisory Services is available now, with the rest of these solutions set to launch in the second and third quarters of Dell Technologies' 2018 fiscal year.