The Open Compute Project (OCP), a Facebook-backed initiative that aims to develop cheaper, more energy efficient data centre designs, has announced it will begin work on a specification and a reference box for an open, OS-agnostic top-of-rack switch.
The development process will be outlined at the first-ever OCP Engineering Summit, being held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on May 16. This is the first project for the organisation to be created from scratch, without relying on any designs contributed by its members.
Open hardware
The Open Compute Project was launched by Facebook in 2011 to share custom-made data centre technology. Today, it unites more than 50 member companies, including Intel, Seagate, EMC, ARM, Dell, Rackspace and Red Hat.
Open Compute is creating blueprints for components that consume less power, can be updated independently of each other and prevent vendor lock-in. In the last two years, it has produced open designs for everything from racks and storage to power supplies, motherboards and interconnects.
According to Frank Frankovsky, chairman and president of Open Compute, the switching solutions currently on the market haven’t been designed for deployment at scale and don’t allow consumers to modify or replace their software, oversights he hopes to fix.
“It’s our hope that an open, disaggregated switch will enable a faster pace of innovation in the development of networking hardware; help software-defined networking continue to evolve and flourish; and ultimately provide consumers of these technologies with the freedom they need to build infrastructures that are flexible, scalable, and efficient across the entire stack,” said Frankovsky.
Najam Ahmad, who runs the network engineering team at Facebook, has volunteered to lead the switch project. Broadcom, Intel, Netronome, the Open Networking Foundation and VMware are just some of the companies that are already planning to participate.
Licenciada en Bellas Artes y programadora por pasión. Cuando tengo un rato retoco fotos, edito vídeos y diseño cosas. El resto del tiempo escribo en MA-NO WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT.
There are many prototyping tools, user interface design tools or vector graphics applications. But most of them are paid or closed source. So here I will show you several open…
Open source cloud infrastructures are not capturing the imagination of cloud implementers, if research from Opsview is to be believed. When asked to identify their existing cloud service providers, 56 percent of…
One of the most sophisticated web server backdoors ever seen has spread fast and is now sitting on hundreds of webservers running some of the most popular websites in the world, researchers…
Some of the best things in the world are open source — that is to say that the basic code or instructions for it are available for everyone to use…
MENSAJE
OPERACIÓN EJECUTADA
We use our own and third-party cookies to improve our services, compile statistical information and analyze your browsing habits. This allows us to personalize the content we offer and to show you advertisements related to your preferences. By clicking "Accept all" you agree to the storage of cookies on your device to improve website navigation, analyse traffic and assist our marketing activities. You can also select "System Cookies Only" to accept only the cookies required for the website to function, or you can select the cookies you wish to activate by clicking on "settings".
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be disabled on our systems. They are generally only set in response to your actions in requesting services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or completing forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you to these cookies, but some areas of the site will not work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can assess the performance of our site and improve it. They help us know which pages are the most or least visited, and how visitors navigate the site. All information collected by these cookies is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies to be used, we will not know when you visited our site and will not be able to assess whether it worked properly
Functional Cookies
These cookies allow the website to provide better functionality and customization. They may be set by our company or by external providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies to be used, some of these services may not function properly
Targeted Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to profile your interests and display relevant ads on other sites. They do not directly store personal information, but are based on the unique identification of your browser and Internet device. If you do not allow these cookies to be used, you will see less targeted advertising