Big Switch Networks was the winner of the Breakthrough Innovation Product for its Big Cloud Fabric 3.0., which provides hyper-scale networking in public, hybrid and private clouds. BCF is unique in that it delivers on the core vision of SDN on more dimensions than any other solution currently available. Big Switch Networks is the first supplier to have achieved that goal. BCF uses open software running on low-cost, high performance merchant silicon switches from multiple white box partners. This makes the physical underlay network both efficient and programmable. BCF’s overlay virtual network is programmable in the same manner as the physical underlay network, supporting consistent policy deployments in a unified cloud computing fabric.
BCF’s controller is also open and modular, able to integrate with cloud management systems like OpenStack and VMware, and providing visibility from the cloud management platform into the operation of its supporting network transparently. BCF’s controller is also open for extension and integration of optimization applications like Fabric Analytics to collect traffic data and use it to perform network optimizations directly. With BCF 3.0 “Big Switch Networks is achieving an important milestone in creating open, scalable, and versatile software-driven networking for the cloud. The true logic for the unified fabric’s operation is created in the BCF Controller and propagated to all participating network elements dynamically,” states Paul Parker Johnson.
