T H E P R O B L E M :
Your applications and your network
aren’t talking
to each other.
As a result, you’ve got too much capacity where you don’t need it, and not enough where you do. You’ve got a rigid, complex and costly network that needs to do a lot of tricks to do what applications need—whether you’re responsible for making the network work or you rely on the network to run the applications you need.
Can’t applications and networks just get along?
L E A R N M O R E A B O U T U S
To learn how Plexxi might be applied in your network, fill out the form below. We’ll be in touch soon.
Thanks for your interest. We’ll be in touch!
You probably think
your network guy is a
your network guy is a
control
freak,
freak,
right?
And that the network he built is
complicated and inflexible.
And you know what?
You’re right.
complicated and inflexible.
And you know what?
You’re right.
But it’s not his fault.
The data center network at the core of your
business was built with technology designed
business was built with technology designed
for the connectivity needs
of a decade or more ago.
of a decade or more ago.
It’s the only part of your whole technology stack that’s still literally “hard-wired.” And it’s managed through interfaces that haven’t evolved much past the command line era.
Meanwhile, that old-school network is the only thing between you and a failure that brings down your business.
You probably think
applications guys are
applications guys are
cowboys,
right?
And that their applications are
complex, demanding and volatile.
And you know what?
You’re right.
complex, demanding and volatile.
And you know what?
You’re right.
But it’s not their fault.
Business changes fast,
and it’s a constant challenge to develop the applications it takes to keep up. The data and processing power to drive those applications is all over the place—some of it on servers that aren’t even real anymore. The legacy network you’re stuck with just isn’t up to the challenge—worse, it’s become a barrier to business innovation.
But if you help those “cowboys” enable their business applications to run better, it makes both of you look good.
The real bad guy
is complexity at the friction point of fast changing
application requirements and hard-wired networks.
application requirements and hard-wired networks.
Like a growing cohort of other “next gen” networking companies, we initially thought the answer was in software to more elegantly “virtualize” the network layer. But it turns out that just relieves the symptoms. It doesn’t cure the disease.
T H E A N S W E R : A F F I N I T Y
T H E A N S W E R: A F F I N I T Y
Affinity
IS A
COLLECTION
OF
Resources
An Affinity Network is a collection of resources—like instances of an application workload or members of a virtual network—that have a relationship to each other. Basically, it’s a network of devices that want something from each other. So, how do you implement Affinity Networks down to the physical network layer?
The servers and storage devices in an Affinity Network want to be connected to each other with the least amount of overhead. Plexxi enables direct east-west connections to unleash server utilization. The new flat network can now move capacity to the edge, which minimizes the overhead required to connect resources.
Affinity needs a Virtual
MULTICORE
NETWORK
It's not one size fits all
Every Affinity Network needs its own core of the network. Plexxi gives each application its own piece of the network sized and shaped to meet its specific needs. Just as multi-core processors allowed server virtualization to achieve optimal scalability, data centers need a multi-core fabric to ensure each workload or virtualized network gets what it needs from the fabric.
T H E P R O D U C T :
Plexxi Switch
)
The Plexxi Switch is the first SDN-based Ethernet switch that integrates the power and flexibility of high density optical multiplexing technology to create rich bandwidth, low-latency, adaptable data center networks for clouds and dynamic data centers.
Plexxi switches enable data center
networks that are:
networks that are:
- Flat - leveraging Plexxi’s LightRail™ technology to replace costly, rigid and inefficient aggregation layers, saving cost, space, and power and ensuring the most direct path between data center resources.
- Linear - cost and performance scales linearly from a few server racks to warehouse size data centers, offering predictable economics and capacity.
- MultiCore - each workload or tenant receives its own slice of the network that adapts to its unique needs.
- Orchestratable - leveraging the flexibility of optical multiplexing to create networks that are a direct manifestation of the workload needs.
T H E P R O D U C T :
Plexxi Control
)
Plexxi Control is an SDN-based centralized network orchestration and controller platform built specifically to understand the affinities that exist between data center resources and directly implement the actual network that is needed for optimal performance. Together with the Plexxi Switch, Control creates Plexxi's revolutionary Affinity Networking solution.
Plexxi Control enables data center
networks that are:
networks that are:
- Deterministic - leveraging state of the art algorithms to compute the new network state based on knowledge of workload affinities and the current network state.
- Resource coherent - data center compute, storage, and network resources are synchronized in the data model and form the basis for explicit affinity policies.
- Affinity driven - Explicit inter and intra-workload needs such as bandwidth, latency and isolation are serviced first by arranging the network to fit those needs, while remaining workloads are efficiently load balanced across the Plexxi network.
- Centrally managed - with an advanced GUI or scriptable shell or automated from existing compute/storage orchestration systems via RESTful APIs.
Affinity needs
DIRECT
No way around it.
Every Affinity Network has its own needs. Those needs must be imprinted directly on the network. With a flat and multi-core network, you can directly orchestrate the network with exactly those needs, without translation into network speak.
T H E P R O D U C T :
Plexxi API
)
Plexxi's open API’s allow businesses to define workload affinities from wherever that data exists making direct automated networks a reality.
Additional Resources
R E S O U R C E S :
U S E C A S E S : W H A T C A N P L E X X I D O F O R Y O U ?
Whether you build the data center network, or run the application workloads on top of the network, deploying Plexxi in the data center provides the most efficient network for any particular set of applications.
NETWORK USE CASES
Plexxi is helping our customers change their data centers by delivering networks that are not overbuilt, underutilized, or using technology designed for a different era. While Plexxi networks offer benefits in many different scenarios, here are a couple of common ones we are helping our customers with.
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APPLICATION WORKLOAD SERVICES
Data centers exist to run application workloads. Plexxi’s Affinity Networking is enabling data center networks driven from the workload perspective. Here are a few common workload types where Plexxi can provide distinct advantages.
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