Pica8 introduced switch orchestration software designed to automatically connect almost any number of multivendor 1G to 100G white box Ethernet switches and run them as if they were a single logical switch with a single IP address.
Pica8 said that by compressing dozens of white box switches int
o a single logical device for configuration and management, its new PicaPilot software reduces network operational complexity by 10-50X.
In lieu of Spanning Tree Protocol, PicaPilot uses MLAG (Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation) to maximize bandwidth utilization and act as PicaPilot’s primary high-availability/reliability mechanism. In addition, PicaPilot automatically redirects traffic in the event of a spine switch or link failure, significantly reducing the possibility of any network downtime.
“The biggest complaint we hear from almost every one of our enterprise customers today is that the complexity and rigidity of their existing legacy networks has got to end,” said Jeff Paine, vice president of marketing at Pica8. “As the first company to ship an open, Linux-based NOS on white box switches over six years ago, we felt it was incumbent upon us to be the one to find a way to crack the final barrier facing our industry – entrenched complexity – which PicaPilot has done by extracting all the complexity from leaf-spine and reducing it to a single layer from a management perspective.111 There is literally nothing simpler or easier to use in the market.”
All versions of PicaPilot for PICOS-enabled switches are priced at under $1,000 for a perpetual license and are available now for deployment on any Pica8-supported switch.
