Unlocking the software defined data centre potential with Open Networking

Ed. note: This blog was authored by Iñaki Calvo, CEO of ICM Netsystems, Spain

 

I don’t need a crystal ball to know that software defined data centers (SDDC) are the future. As the CEO of ICM Netsystems, I have conversations with businesses almost every day about software-defined infrastructures and how companies can outsource their entire data centers to organisations such as ours. The truth is that SDDC technology has made business models such as ours viable, and open networking has made the impossible suddenly possible. Let me explain.

Open networking, new possibilities

Networking has come a long way in a very short time. For so long, switches were these mysterious black boxes that only specially trained administrators could work with. Yet now that straitjacket has been removed and switches can be managed just like servers or storage, and by anyone on the team.

For us, Dell and Cumulus Networks have been an introduction to open networking. Their technology has made a big difference in the way we manage our network. For an innovative business like mine, this has been great. It is the key reason why we’re using Dell Networking S6000-ON switches running Cumulus Linux for our data center services.

Makes software-defined datacentre services truly compelling

We chose the Dell Open Networking solution with S6000-ON switches to replace our existing proprietary technology for two main reasons. One, we trust the Dell brand and two, the Open Networking S6000-ON solution helped us realize the true benefits of SDDC.

We implemented 40GbE switching with Cumulus Linux OS and off-the-shelf tools for automation and monitoring. Dell S6000-ON provides us 32 ports of 40GbE or 96 ports of 10GbE and eight ports of 40GbE. Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fans made the S6000-ON a compelling choice to complete and transform our data center into a software defined data center.

Cuts switching footprint by 50 per cent per cent and boosts growth by 20 per cent

The great news is we halved the footprint of our network switches by moving to the S6000-ON solution, and gained the capacity to double port numbers in the future to expand our business. Plus, we can drive growth by at least 20 per cent by being able to offer customers greater network speeds.

Ensures preparedness for great opportunities ahead

Business agility – ability to deploy new and varied services and support innovation – rapidly transforming our infrastructure to meet customer’s demands are key to our success.

Our customers rely on us to meet their data-centre needs day-in and day-out, whatever their business demands. Furthermore, innovation is at the core of ICM Netsystems. It is through innovation that we have built a successful company that continues to develop new ways of delivering greater value to our customers and enticing more customers to choose ICM Netsystems and the value we provide with software-defined data center services.

As I said at the start, I don’t need a crystal ball to know that the software-defined data center is the future. I am certain that Open Networking from Dell and Cumulus Networks continue to innovate and help us serve our customers for years to come…

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About Iñaki Calvo

Iñaki has been working in the ISP industry for nearly 15 years. As CEO of ICM Netsystems, he’s responsible for analyzing the market and deciding how to evolve new services both on-premise and in the cloud, while ensuring maximum performance.

Sarah Vela

About the Author: Sarah Vela

Sarah Vela is no longer with Dell Technologies.