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First Look

Accelerating Innovation with Enterprise SONiC Distribution
by Dell Technologies
Date: April 2020 Author: Alex Arcilla, Validation Analyst

Challenges:

55%

1

The percentage of organizations that view
becoming more operationally efficient as a top
objective of their digital transformation
initiatives.

95%

The percentage of organizations that view
their IT environments as equally or more
complex than they were two years ago.

As organizations undergo digital transformation initiatives, they want to become more efficient when operating andmanaging increasingly complex IT network infrastructures. The complexity is especially apparent as organizations continue
to maintain multi-vendor networks built on traditional networking solutions with tightly coupled hardware and software.
In recent years, organizations have embraced the concept of open networking. By using open source software to speed up
the development of networking features to meet their business needs, organizations can avoid negotiating productroadmaps with vendors or developing clumsy and complex workarounds. Adopting an open networking approach alsoenables organizations to develop network functionality on their hardware of choice instead of proprietary hardware.
Enterprises can then easily develop and deploy networking capabilities throughout the IT environment.
To meet the demands of today’s enterprise IT networks, organizations would benefit from an open networking platformthat has already been proven to operate in large-scale environments. Organizations would also benefit from access toongoing technical support that can address continuous software maintenance, thus allowing the business to focus on thedevelopment of innovative services for their customers.

Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies
Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologiesis an open networking solution that combines open source networking
software with enterprise-level support. Leveraging the open source Debian Linux distribution, this open networking
operating system is based on Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC), a platform developed originally byMicrosoft to address its own cloud-scale networking needs and build containerized applications within Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft also developed SONiC so that it could accelerate any debugging or network issue resolution in-house, making iteasier to meet internal service level agreements (SLAs) with end-users.
Organizations using Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies can benefit from code contributions madecontinuously by over 40 software platform and semiconductor companies in the SONiC ecosystem, including thosecontributions made by Dell Technologies since SONiC’s inception.
To enable enterprises to innovate on networking functionality that can meet their unique business needs quickly, they canleverage the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI). The SAI version of the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) acts as astandardized API of the Enterprise SONiC Distribution platform for developing networking capabilities on the customer’s
choice of hardware. Using this version of SAI, the Dell Technologies’ platform enables organizations to develop innovative
networking features on the NOS of their choice across the Dell EMC PowerSwitch Z or S Series product lines.

1

Source: ESG Master Survey Results, 2020 Technology Spending Intentions Survey, December 2019.
This ESG First Look was commissioned by Dell Technologies and is distributed under license from ESG.
© 2020 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

First Look: Accelerating Innovation with Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies

2Dell Technologies also enables enterprises to leverage functions associated with other products that help in designing,configuring, and operating SONiC-based switches, including Dell EMC Fabric Design Center, Dell EMC SmartFabric Director,
Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise, and select third-party
applications. By using APIs associated with these products,
organizations can programmatically integrate existing capabilities
with Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies.
Enterprises using the Dell Technologies’ open networking platform
can also leverage SONiC’s modular architecture supported bycontainerization to make IT operations more efficient. Unlike
monolithic software systems, the Enterprise SONiC Distribution
platform can be modified or debugged easily without having totouch the entire code base. Since containers isolate the code for
specific network functions and features, organizations only need to
update software to address bug fixes, patches, or upgrades
associated with affected containers. This isolation also helps tominimize network downtime.
While SONiC is open source code, Dell Technologies has ensured that its platform can operate in enterprise-level IT
networks via extensive hardware and software testing and validation through a myriad of large-scale enterprise use cases.
To further encourage enterprise adoption, Dell Technologies has included numerous management options, specifically acentralized management framework CLI and advanced telemetry, to aid IT support teams in daily network management andmonitoring. Enterprises can also use other programmatic interfaces supported by the Enterprise SONiC Distribution
platform, such as those employing representational state transfer (REST), gRPC Network Management Interface (gNMI), andgRPC Network Operations Interface (gNOI), for network management purposes.
Unlike companies that use SONiC only, those leveraging Dell Technologies’ platform can also benefit from global enterpriselevel support. Customers can rely on Dell Technologies’ technical support for hardware issues and software-related updates,upgrades, and issue resolution. Enterprises ultimately benefit from the flexibility and agility of open source networking
development with the technical support expected by enterprises today.

ESG Demo Highlights
ESG performed joint testing of the Enterprise SONiC Distribution platform to determine how it can help organizations tobecome more efficient in their daily IT operations.
• ESG first examined the four primary interfaces that adminstrators use to manage the open source SONiC network
operating system:o SONiC Linux shell CLI for network and switch configuration.
o Minigraph.xml for enabling legacy configuration workflows.
o Config_db.json for acting as a repository for configuration tables.
o FRR for routing protocol configuration.
Each interface presents a different way to configure SONiC within an organization’s network. We then noted how Dell
Technologies use of the management framework CLI screen in its Enterprise SONiC Distribution platform integrates theexecution of functions from the four interfaces into one view. This single view minimizes administrator time inswitching between separate screens to complete configurations of any switch running SONiC.

First Look: Accelerating Innovation with Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies

3• ESG then viewed thecommand syntax of the four
separate interfaces againstthat on the single interface
for the Enterprise SONiC
Distribution platform. We
saw that an administrator
would need to know thecommand syntax unique toeach interface if a single CLI
were not available. With themanagement framework CLI,
command syntax is
consistent for switch
configuration. Creating aconsistent syntax can help anadministrator learn how to navigate the management framework CLI faster, as opposed to learning and remembering
the syntax for the four original SONiC interfaces. Time to value and time to perform administrative tasks decrease,making IT operations more efficient.
• ESG also noted how the single management framework CLI contributed by Dell Technologies provides a simple andconsistent way for a network administrator to create and manage alerts across all switches running SONiC. The
common syntax provided by the management framework CLI enables network administrators to develop alerts thatcan be understood and addressed by the IT team, minimizing the time to diagnose and resolve network issues.

First Impressions
Organizations that embrace open networking seek more control over the deployment of software-based networking
functionality as business needs arise. While open source networking platforms provide a viable alternative to purchasing
proprietary solutions with tightly coupled hardware and software, organizations also seek a solution that can meet thedemands of enterprise IT environments and provide adequate ongoing technical support to minimize network downtime.
ESG conducted an initial review of the Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies. We validated how DellTechnologies has contributed to the SONiC platform so that enterprises can extract the most value. We noted thatcommands for switch configuration can now be completed via one interface, as opposed to the four disparate interfaces
offered by the original SONiC platform. Command syntax is also consistent, helping administrators to quickly learn andadopt the management framework CLI into daily IT operations. Dell Technologies also enables the integration of other
Dell EMC products, specifically Fabric Design Center, SmartFabric Director, and OpenManage Enterprise, as well as selectthird-party applications via APIs so that customers can better design, configure, and operate a SONiC-based enterprisegrade network.

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