Open requirements as the muse for contemporary knowledge facilities
Openness, interoperability, and safety have by no means been extra important for knowledge middle networking. Cisco has lengthy championed these ideas—not simply taking part in requirements our bodies however main the improvements that form them. Our foundational work on applied sciences like Digital Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and Ethernet Digital Personal Community (EVPN) displays a long-standing perception that open requirements are the important thing to flexibility, interoperability, and buyer selection.
We’re now at a pivotal second. As various applied sciences converge and the demand for seamless interoperability grows—particularly with the rise of AI workloads—the trade wants a unified, open method. EVPN, initially designed to make knowledge middle networks extra environment friendly and scalable, now performs a vital function in AI cloth architectures, offering the pliability and consistency required for high-performance, distributed computing environments.
Cisco is assembly this second by bringing collectively the facility of Cisco ACI and NX-OS by the Cisco Nexus One Material answer—a unified structure constructed fully on the open requirements we helped outline. This method is additional validated by trade collaboration, together with the latest VMware Cloud Basis (VCF) announcement. Collectively, we’re shaping the subsequent decade of information middle networking—and AI networking—with simplicity, agility, and safety on the core.
Cisco’s pioneering function in IETF networking requirements
Cisco has lengthy been a frontrunner in shaping trade requirements by lively participation and management within the Web Engineering Activity Power (IETF). From core applied sciences like L3VPN and MPLS to our ongoing work with VXLAN and EVPN, our contributions have helped outline the fashionable knowledge middle. For instance, Cisco engineers launched the primary EVPN draft in 2010, setting the stage for what would grow to be RFC 7432—the foundational normal for EVPN.
Our management is mirrored in IETF knowledge displaying Cisco as the highest contributor to EVPN RFCs. It’s a testomony to our deep experience and dedication to open collaboration and a thriving multivendor ecosystem.
Cisco Nexus One: ACI and NX-OS interoperability for a constant cloth expertise
On the coronary heart of our open networking imaginative and prescient is the Cisco Nexus One Material answer, bringing collectively the information aircraft, management aircraft, coverage aircraft, and administration aircraft throughout Cisco ACI and NX-OS VXLAN EVPN materials.
All managed merely by Cisco Nexus Dashboard.
What does this imply for our prospects?
- Lowered complexity: Acquire end-to-end visibility and simplified provisioning and troubleshooting by a single dashboard throughout knowledge middle materials.
- Funding safety: Seamlessly interoperate between ACI and NX-OS deployments—greenfield or brownfield.
- Enhanced safety: Persistently implement microsegmentation and coverage throughout your complete cloth, from ACI to NX-OS and past.
This unified method helps prospects innovate sooner, decrease whole price of possession, and obtain the operational simplicity wanted to energy at the moment’s dynamic, application-driven environments.
Advancing flexibility and segmentation with Group Coverage Object
A key enabler of this converged structure is our work on the Group Coverage Object (GPO) normal. Originating from improvements inside ACI, GPO supplies a technique to outline and implement safety segmentation insurance policies inside a VXLAN EVPN cloth. We’ve got contributed this innovation to the trade by IETF requirements, constructing on the present VXLAN EVPN framework for backward compatibility.
NX-OS now implements these GPO-based capabilities, permitting it to help policy-based segmentation identical to ACI. On the similar time, ACI expands its open structure by integrating standards-based VXLAN EVPN Border Gateway performance. This enables an ACI cloth to seamlessly interconnect with each policy-aware and policy-unaware non-ACI materials.
This two-way avenue of innovation is central to the Cisco Nexus One imaginative and prescient, offering unparalleled flexibility with out sacrificing safety or management.
Aligning with VMware Cloud Basis for true interoperability
Our dedication to open requirements extends to our collaborations with key ecosystem companions. The latest alignment between Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Basis and our Nexus One Material answer is a major milestone for the trade. As VCF strikes towards EVPN-based interoperability, it creates a robust synergy with our standards-based method.
“Broadcom at the moment permits EVPN-based cloth interoperability with our VPC networking to ship a cloud-like expertise for contemporary non-public clouds, and we’re excited to increase this deal with open standards-based networking by our new collaboration with Cisco,” stated Paul Turner, Chief Product Officer, VCF Division, Broadcom. “By aligning VMware Cloud Basis with Cisco Nexus One Material answer, we allow organizations to speed up innovation with a constant working mannequin, elevated efficiency, and decrease whole price of possession.”
This collaboration permits prospects who use each Cisco and VMware applied sciences to attain constant and dependable outcomes. VCF’s open structure, mixed with the unified Cisco Nexus One Material, means you possibly can construct a contemporary non-public cloud that leverages your most well-liked infrastructure whereas benefiting from seamless community integration. This strategic method helps speed up innovation, shorten time to worth, and decrease whole price of possession as VCF extends to the Cisco Nexus One Material answer.
The longer term is open and unified
As AI and business-critical workloads proceed to reshape IT necessities, the necessity for versatile, unified architectures constructed on open requirements has by no means been larger. By means of our work in EVPN/VXLAN and the Nexus One answer, we’re converging ACI and NX-OS, embracing requirements like GPO, and partnering with Broadcom to form the trade’s course.
Our open-standards method facilitates seamless integration throughout digital and Kubernetes environments, guaranteeing agility and consistency on each platform.
With a confirmed monitor document of IETF management and innovation, we’re empowering prospects to construct the information facilities of tomorrow on a safe, open, and unified networking cloth—enabling limitless prospects.