Cisco making SONiC available to all customers – not just hyperscalers

Networks

Hardened version of open-source NOS coming to Nexus 9000s

Cisco is close to allowing customers to run the SONiC network operating system on its flagship Nexus 9000 series datacenter switches.SONiC – aka “Software for Open Networking in the Cloud” – is a Linux Foundation project that develops an open source network operating system (NOS) capable of running on diverse switches and silicon. The project started life at Microsoft, which adapted the software from its Debian-based Azure Cloud Switch.The project is widely adopted by hyperscalers, who need and like customizable stacks.

Hyperscalers also buy plenty of networking hardware from the likes of Cisco, Juniper, and Arista, who therefore support SONiC.

Some vendors, notably Dell, have argued that SONiC is ideal for enterprise networking – especially switching – and supported it while promoting the cause of NOS choice. A corollary of that idea suggests that users might stop buying all their networking hardware from one vendor, and buy diverse fleets of SONiC-capable hardware instead.