Today Penguin Computing announced that the company will offer the PicOS operating system as an option on the company’s Arctica “bright box” top-of-rack switches. This move extends options for data center operators, service providers, carriers and enterprise private cloud environments to leverage standardized high performance hardware and open switching software to integrate Layer 2 / Layer 3 protocols with SDN protocols.
As one of the largest private suppliers of enterprise and high-performance computing solutions in North America, we know the direction of the data center market,” said Tom Coull, CEO, Penguin Computing. “By combining Layer 2 / Layer 3 routing and switching support with OpenFlow 1.4 support for SDN under a familiar command-line interface, PicOS makes it convenient for data center operators to leverage bright box economics while gaining the flexibility that comes from network disaggregation.”
The PicOS supports switching, routing, and OpenFlow 1.4 in a Linux-based environment that will be immediately recognizable to DevOps administrators. With its unique CrossFlow Networking capabilities, PicOS allows users to combine Layer 2 / Layer 3 and SDN protocols on the same switch, making it easy to integrate SDN functions into an existing data center environment.
This agreement with Penguin Computing gives us access to a large and diverse enterprise and HPC customer base and further legitimizes the bright box approach,” said Niraj Jain, vice president of business development at Pica8. “With support from major integrated solutions providers like Penguin Computing, we can make bright box switching a standard option across the service provider, enterprise and high-performance computing landscapes.”
Pica8 and Penguin Computing will be demonstrating the bright box solution at Interop Las Vegas (Interop booth #1458).
