Heavy Networking 538: Running An Open, Automated Data Center Fabric With Nokia (Sponsored)

Data center fabrics seem like they’ve been talked to death in the networking industry. Lots of products. Some protocol work. Various reference models.
We’ve got intent based networking that will stand up your data center fabric for you. We’ve had an explosion in network OS choices that can be paired with a variety of whitebox platforms. We know how to build leaf-spine fabrics. We can handle standing up and tearing down new pods and interconnecting them with other pods. We can run processes in containers, isolate them from one another, and create exactly the forwarding environment we need.
It seems like we’ve got this data center fabric thing nailed.
But do we? The answer is…it’s complicated. Maybe we have the capabilities, but we don’t have the operations. Maybe we can scale out, but aren’t so good at visibility. Maybe we can do ECMP really well, but troubleshooting gray failures is a struggle.
Why is building a massive fabric almost a trivial exercise, while operating that fabric is not? Our sponsor today is Nokia. If you’re of the Cisco/Juniper/Arista mindset, maybe Nokia isn’t top of mind for you. But perhaps they should be. Nokia has been a mainstay in IP networking for a very long time, and have thought deeply about the challenge of operating data center fabrics. And they’re here to explain to us what they’ve built and why it will improve networkers’ lives.
In today’s discussion, we cover Nokia’s SR Linux and Fabric Services Platform. These products are key to helping improve your data center fabric operations. Joining us is Steve Vogelsang, CTO for IP and Optical Networks at Nokia.
We discuss:

* Why Nokia is entering the data center switching business
* Highlights of SR Linux
* Details of Nokia’s Fabric Services Platform
* Using the Fabric Services Platform for intent-based networking
* Whitebox switches
* More

Show Links:
Nokia Data Center Fabric
Nokia Service Router Linux (SR Linux)
Nokia Hardware Platforms For Data Center Fabrics
Nokia Fabric Services Platform
Data Center tour launch video
SR Linux Tech Video
SR Linux Product Description
Fabric Service Platform Tech Video
Fabric Services Platform Product Description
Nokia on Twitter