This document series should assist federal data center
planners with the design of their data centers and provide
insights and considerations for deploying Extreme
Networks solutions. It outlines how the Extreme Networks
approach to building Data Center Fabrics will enable
agencies to deliver upon the tenets of the Office of
Management Budget (OMB) guidelines for creating viable
long-term network solutions for the Federal Data Center
that will serve their constituents well into the future.
Volume 1: Industry Trend towards a de facto standard: IP
Fabric Overview – This document
This document discusses the industry adoption of IP Fabric
in the Data Center, including the Layer 2 and Layer 3 services
approach to provide interconnection of software applications
and compute stack tiers of the data center architecture.
Volume 2: Achieving Any-to-Any Connectivity with TimeTested Design Approaches and Proven Methodologies
This document discusses the historical background of
utilizing a staged approach to gain economy in building
any-to-any architectures. It discusses the nature of 3 and
5 stage Clos IP Fabric and their ancestry from cross point
architectures in switching systems, their adaptation to
resolve problems in the communications industry over time.
Volume 3: Evaluation of Reliability and Availability of
Network Services in the Data Center Infrastructure
This document discusses the industry standard
methodologies of calculating, for purposes of comparison,
various underlay element types. It compares single form
factor switching elements at the Leaf, Spine and SuperSpine Layers with their chassis-based counterparts, and
identifies the mean-time-between-failures (MTBFs),
Mean-time-between-repairs (MTTR), and their relation to
element and network availability. It also provides availability
measurements and the unavailability calculations based
upon the elements placement in the network, and the
number of port connections between compute and
application services platforms.
Volume 4: The Data Center IP Fabric Control Plane
This document discusses the protocols utilized to handle the
IP control plane of the data center fabric. It also discusses
the ability to provide deployment, automation, and
simplicity and uniformity with time-saving tools that create
an automated underlay and overlay for tenant services.
Extreme Networks Data Center technologies, based upon
the SLX switching and routing platforms, deliver to the
data center an unmatched combination of visibility,
automation, agility, performance and security. These
capabilities support the unique requirements of the modern
warfighter, intelligence community and civilian agencies of
the U.S. Federal Government. Extreme Networks solutions
are certified via NIST, Common Criteria and the Joint
Interoperability Command Test facilities to meet the security
and interoperability requirements of the U.S. Federal
Government, NATO and other partner government agencies.
Extreme Networks delivers solutions that are standards
based to ensure vendor interoperability, incorporate third
party solutions, and avoid vendor lock-in, yet remain
feature rich. This series will discuss how Extreme Networks
delivers reliable solutions and offers ease of use capabilities
that enable organizational agility, and ease of inserting
new technology; while being backed by the industry’s best
customer service. These attributes support the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) stated priorities in the
federal government’s efforts to consolidate data centers.
Office of Management and Budget Priorities:
Throughout this document, we will discuss how an agile IP
Fabric-based Data Center Infrastructure can enable federal
agencies in meeting these priorities.
Data Center Networking Alignment with
Federal Priorities
So how do agencies determine their progress in delivering
against these priorities? Government agency technical
leadership recognizes that it must digitize their agencies
IT network environment to accelerate innovation and to
provide seamless services to their stakeholders. Currently
government IT organizations and programs are running the
risk of being over-burdened with outdated processes that
thwart the progress of making delivery of services more
efficient. They realize that the fast innovation needed to
drive this transformation can only happen with an agile IT
foundation, and with seamless automation and network
visibility connecting IT domains and functions. They need
a network platform that, regardless of architecture, natively
incorporates agility into the operation of their infrastructure.
Extreme Networks delivers against these priorities with
capabilities that enable pervasive visibility and
extensive automation.
Extreme Networks Fabrics: Delivering Flexible
Architecture Support
Generally, the IT enterprise, Service Provider and Cloud
Service Provider (Public/Private/Hybrid) industries have
come to the resounding conclusion that IP Fabric suit the
requirements of data center deployments across the globe.
Gone are the days of designing architectures with spanning
tree, blocked ports, and multiple tiers that leave 50% of
the ports or capacity waiting unused or under-utilized. The
client endpoint applications that access the data center
require reliability, safety, security, privacy, interoperability
and autonomy. The platform and the underlying
architecture should support these properties as a baseline.
The requirements for the government data center also include high-bandwidth, low-latency, and in many cases
nonblocking server-to-server connectivity. In addition to
these baseline properties, vendors now offer IP Fabric that
support:
*Per Gardner, 80% of the typical data centers traffic is 80% East-West
Extreme Networks offers multiple flexible architecture
fabric support options for customers requiring high
availability, agility and programmability. While the industry,
in its adoption of IP Fabric, seems to have settled on a de
facto data center fabric architecture, RFC7938 (use of BGP
routing for large scale data centers), Extreme Networks
understands that not all fabrics are optimal in all places of
the network. In fact, some Extreme Networks customers
believe that the fabric technologies delivered by Extreme
Networks provide the precise functionality required for their
application in very specific points in the network. Extreme
provides network fabrics that enable multiple advantages
over the traditional network at layer 1, 2, 3, or a combination
to deliver the benefits of fabric technology to any place in
the network:
In the Federal Data Center
In the Federal Campus
End-to-End: From the Federal Data Center to the Network Access in the Federal Campus Network
Continue to Volume 2: Achieving Any-to-Any Connectivity with Time-Tested Design Approaches and Proven Methodologies. This document discusses the historical background of utilizing a staged approach to gain economy in building any-to-any architectures. It discusses the nature of 3- and 5-stage Clos Fabrics and their ancestry from cross point architectures in switching systems, their adaptation to resolve problems in the communications industry over time.
