ACADEMIA

6WINDGate Cloud Edition software solves data center performance bottlenecks, complementing hardware, software and system-level products from other ONF members

6WIND has announced that it has joined the Open Networking Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the transformation of networking through the development and standardization of a unique architecture called Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which brings direct software programmability to networks worldwide. As a leading commercial supplier of high-performance data plane software in SDN-based applications, 6WIND provides solutions that perfectly complement the products from other ONF member companies, eliminating critical data center performance bottlenecks and accelerating advanced networking functions.

“6WIND is delighted to become a member of the Open Networking Foundation,” said Eric Carmès, CEO of 6WIND. “Our proven technology for high-performance data plane processing delivers critical business advantages for data center operators as they work to address both CAPEX and OPEX challenges in the face of on-going increases in users, in data traffic and in cloud workload complexity. We expect to contribute unique expertise to the further evolution of SDN standards developed by ONF. We look forward to working with other member companies to deploy our high-performance data plane solutions along with their hardware, software and system-level products.”

Within data centers, the number of Virtual Machines (VMs) per server blade is increasing rapidly, leveraging on-going improvements in the performance of the processors used on those blades. Because of this growth, the data center network needs to expand beyond its current limit at the Top-of-Rack, to a model where a virtual switch on each server blade is used to distribute the increasing volume of network traffic to virtualized applications. Adding to the networking load now placed on server blades, multi-tenant architectures require traffic engineering to be performed at the server edge. As an additional networking performance challenge for server blades, the growing number of VMs per blade also makes high-bandwidth VM-to-VM communication mandatory, incorporating networking services that extend beyond the basic Layer 2 features provided by a typical virtual switch.

While the above trends impact the networking workload for server blades, the existing data center network architecture comprised of appliances such as Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs), firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPSs) and Unified Threat Management Systems (UTMs) is migrating from physical implementations to virtualized architectures running on general-purpose processor platforms similar to the application servers in order to achieve minimum cost and maximum flexibility. Both physical and virtual network appliances require a very high performance, rich networking software layer able to distribute high bandwidth network traffic to a large number of endpoints with very low latency.

Based on innovative data plane processing technology widely deployed worldwide in mobile infrastructure applications such as LTE gateways, the 6WINDGate Cloud Edition software provides a solution to these critical data center networking performance challenges. 6WINDGate enables the deployment of large numbers of VMs on application server blades, with full support for the security features that are required for both public and private clouds, while providing the high-performance traffic engineering features required for efficient multi-tenant installations within data centers. Fully compatible with OpenFlow, 6WINDGate delivers the comprehensive data plane solutions that are required for high-performance, scalable, cost-effective physical and virtual network appliances.

“ONF’s mission is to promote the commercialization and use of SDN and its underlying technologies,” said Dan Pitt, executive director, Open Networking Foundation. “We are genuinely enthused when we see member companies, new and existing, introduce new products that advance the introduction of SDNs. Such efforts by members to innovate, accelerate and commercialize SDN solutions are of great value to users who can and will benefit from the technology.”