Networking

NVIDIA First to Offer Pure SONiC

SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) is a Linux-based, open network operating system that has been hardened in the data centers of some of the largest cloud-service providers. SONiC was initiated by Microsoft in 2016 and contributed to the Open Compute Project (OCP) a year later and continues to gain strong momentum with Hyperscalers and Tier 2 Enterprises that want to emulate Hyperscalers.  

SONiC is garnering lots of industry attention as cloud hyperscalers, service providers of all kinds, and enterprises seek faster, more efficient, and automated networking. A growing number of enterprises are benefiting from the acceleration of open networking and looking to SONiC to eliminate vendor dependence.

NVIDIA Mellanox was one of the first and continues to be one of the largest contributors to the open source version of pure SONiC. NVIDIA and SONiC together are delivering the best of what open networking has to offer.   NVIDIA offers pure SONiC that is community developed, publicly available and 100% open-sourced and includes full NVIDIA QA cycles, professional services, technical documentation, training and most importantly, commercial support. NVIDIA has been a leading contributor to SONiC since its inception, providing deep networking, open-source and Linux expertise to uniquely support the successful adoption of SONiC for our customers. 

NVIDIA’s recent acquisition of Mellanox and Cumulus Networks solidifies NVIDIA as the premier provider of open networking solutions offering a wide portfolio of products including SPECTRUM based Ethernet Switch Hardware, SONiC, Cumulus Linux and Onyx network operating systems, and NetQ and NEO operations and management tools.  

NVIDIA is the second largest contributor to SONiC. In addition to supporting SONiC with its flagship NVIDIA Mellanox Spectrum and Spectrum-2 Ethernet switching platforms, NVIDIA also offers ASIC-to-Protocol (A2P) support providing a one-stop shop for the entire SONiC stack at every tier for customers who want to leverage the advantages of open networking.

NVIDIA, the industry experts in Linux networking, offers pure SONiC, which means you won’t be limited by a distribution. By choosing NVIDIA, you’re getting the expertise, experience, training, documentation, professional services and support to best guarantee your success. The advantages of pure SONiC backed by NVIDIA include: 

  • Vendor independence: Unlike a distro, pure SONiC doesn’t require reliance upon a single vendor for roadmap additions, bug fixes and security patches. NVIDIA updates SONiC directly, including SAI, and pushes the updates back to the SONiC community to benefit all pure SONiC customers.  
  • Partner with thought leaders: NVIDIA is the leading contributor of FRR, the primary routing stack in SONIC.  
  • ASIC to protocol support: Get support for FRR, SONiC, SAI, system and ASIC – all in one place.  In addition, NVIDIA’s delivered the most comprehensive documentation available to  enable customers to have a true SONiC experience, one that is self enabled and commercially supported by the leader in open networking.
  • Choice of NOS: Mix and match your leaf spine architecture with SONiC, NVIDIA Cumulus Linux, Onyx or others. The choice is yours. 
  • Scalability for hybrid and multi-cloud networks: SONiC’s modular, extensible, container-based design accelerates innovation
  • Unified management: with existing management tools across the data center
  • Reduced complexity: With pure SONiC, alignment with the community version of SONiC is streamlined.  With a SONiC Distribution, the complexity to try to integrate community advances can quickly become unmanageable.

You’ll find a full set of collaterals and web pages below and if you’re interested in trying SONiC yourself, we’ve made it easier than ever to do so. Try SONiC for free with NVIDIA SONiC Air virtual data center. 

NVIDIA SONiC Webpage

NVIDIA SONiC Datasheet

NVIDIA Webinar – The SONiC Open Networking Phenomenon

Futurium 3rd Party White Paper – NVIDIA Adds to SONiC Momentum

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