Case Study: Network Solution

The network solution of the case study will be divided in two posts. In this first post i will introduce the solution and its benefits in order to accomplish the network requirements of the case study.

In order to achieve all the requeriments to have a robust and high available network, I will select the solution of the company Arista Networks. This solution is based on software defined cloud networking for large data center and high-performance computing environments.

the benefits that offer the solution of Arista are:

• Multi Chassis Link Aggregation (MLAG): Enables devices to be attached to a pair of Arista switches with all links running active/active. MLAG eliminates bottlenecks, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), provides resiliency and enables layer 2 links to operate active/active without wasting 50% of the bandwidth as is the case with STP blocked links.
• Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP): Enables switches to be physically deployed without any configuration. With ZTP, a switch loads its image and configuration from a centralized location within the network. This simplifies deployment, enabling network engineering resources to be used for more productive tasks by avoiding wasting valuable time on repetitive tasks such as provisioning switches or requiring network engineers to walk around with serial console cables.
• VXLAN: Is an industry-standard method of supporting layer 2 overlays across layer 3. VXLAN can be deployed as a software feature on hypervisorresident virtual switches, on firewall and load-balancing appliances and on VXLAN hardware gateways built into L3 switches
• Arista Latency Analyzer (LANZ): Enables tracking of network congestion in real time before congestion causes performance issues.
• OpenFlow and DirectFlow: Arista Extensible Operative System supports OpenFlow 1.0 controlled by OpenFlow controllers for filtering and redirecting traffic, also supports a controller-less mode relying on Arista's DirectFlow to direct traffic to the SDN applications.

In conclusion Arista’s cloud networks take the principles that have all the benefits of automation, scalability, self-service provisioning, load balancing, linear scaling and high avaiability, and combine them with the principles of Software Defined Networking.