Big Switch, a company that has shifted from building a controller for software defined networks to building an OS to run atop bare metal switches, is trying to make enterprise networks run like webscale networks.
Cisco has launched a program to train developers to use its APIs and help them program its gear to work with products from Cisco partners. Can this program keep Cisco relevant in a software-defined world?
Appenzeller, who co-founded Big Switch four years ago to attack the software-defined networking market, has taken his leave, sources say.
After raising $6.6 million in October, Pica8 is launching its combination of OpenFlow-based hardware and the software to control massively scaled-out data centers. The company is hoping that buyers will rip out old gear and replace it with its commodity switches and software.
Big Switch Networks has come a long way since it launched in June of 2011, and two big announcements today showcasing its ecosystem and its newly launched products are signs that its going on the offensive in the software-defined networking space.
Cyan, a company that has a history making optical packet networking gear as well as software to manage its own boxes and that of other network equipment companies, has hopped on the software-defined networking bandwagon with its Blue Planet controller.
The SDN startup’s Series B round comes courtesy of new investors Redpoint Ventures and Goldman Sachs. The money will be used to staff up an already tech-heavy engineering staff as the company readies its SDN controllers and applications for the market.
In the wake of a $1 billion acquisition of Nicira, BigSwitch said that it has seen 6,000 downloads of its SDN controller software. Big Switch is the likely the next big buy for software defined networking, but who will be the suitor?
VMware’s planned acquisition of Nicra for $1.25 billion represents the evolution of networking beyond the hardware-dominated point of view that has sustained the industry for decades. Here’s what that means for startups in the networking realm as well as for the industry giants.
The idea of software defined networking enabled by the open-source OpenFlow protocol is under threat from corporations intent on using the OpenFlow name and the promise of software defined networking to lock buyers into their gear, according to a Big Switch Networks executive.
