Open Network Featured Article

Marc Andreessen famously noted years back that software is eating the world, and today we are seeing this in the growing adoption of burgeoning technologies like NFV and SDN. While adoption grows as a result of software’s flexible and cost-saving nature, with every decision comes consequences, and in regard to virtualization it tends to take shape in performance.

At Editors Day Silicon Valley, Netronome (News - Alert) Sr. Director of Product Marketing Ron Renwick explained, “As SDN and NFV become more applicable they are burning more CPU cycles...but you're burning a lot of CPU cycles to get the bandwidth you need.” So, as your anticipation toward our software based future builds, it’s important to realize that the grass on the virtualization side isn’t always as green as it may appear.

Netronome addressed this issue by providing “programmable intelligent server adapters that accelerate and offload the data path,” noted Renwick. He continued, “Ramifications of the SDN world are just now being seen as deployment numbers grow—anything that is virtual or software based provides added flexibility but there’s always a tax somewhere...as things go faster, we get more and more performance on the server but even as you do that there’s only so much room.”

It takes a healthy chunk of CPU cycles just to provide full bandwidth with server based networking. “Our adapters are standard adapters....they fit within a commodity architecture and provide functionality comparable with Mellanox (News - Alert) yet saving 60-70 percent of the above,” highlighted Renwick.

A vital piece of development in today’s software-friendly world is future proofing. Because everything is programmable, the Netronome unit allows for new protocols to be updated. So, as evolution takes place, the customer can keep up with functionality.  OpenV switch is constantly evolving. And, as Renwick explained, “In a traditional adapter, it’s purpose built but once a new protocol comes out that adapter has to rely on the CPU to handle the new standards. Because our adapter is programmable and multi-core, we are able to incorporate updates via software similar to firmware updates on a traditional NIC (News - Alert)… It’s a fully programmable device with that we can provide software as standards change.” For instance, if new OpenFlow rules come in, “there are hooks in the kernel that push to the adapter”

Netronome has been working with Ericsson (News - Alert), and the enterprise technology company reports server reduction, depending on the size and required bandwidth, by six times.

Renwick highlighted, “This is truly off-the-shelf, requires configuration but no programming or a special language,” and works with OpenStack obtain the rules as to how people are leveraging cloud today. Hyperscalers can get elbow deep in code, tweaking granularities, but the solution is truly plug-and-play.

While analysts struggle to decide on a standard term for the space, the “market is quickly coming about and we think we are in a prime position,” noted Renwick

“The days of the uniform data center are gone,” stated Renwick as he hammered home the point that flexibility is key. Netronome delivers a solution that evolves, and in this era of digital transformation where the only constant is change, I’d say that’s a pretty good thing.