When network engineers engage with networking gear for the first time, they do it through a command-line interface (CLI). While CLI is still widely used, network scale has reached new highs, making CLI inefficient for managing and configuring the entire data center. Natively, networking is no exception as the software industry has progressed to automation. Network vendors have all provided…
]]>Data center organizations are looking for more efficient, modern network architectures that can be managed, monitored, and deployed in a scalable manner. Emerging DevOps and NetDevOps operational models are bringing the agile development models of continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) to data center infrastructure. The Cumulus Linux operating system was built from the…
]]>Automation is the key to increasing operational efficiency and lowering OpEx, but it does not guarantee a successful data center deployment. While automation can confirm configuration integrity and prevent human errors in repetitive changes, it can’t validate intent and network requirements. Therefore, automation must be tested and validated before deployment, and the NVIDIA way of doing this is…
]]>Training resources are always a challenge for IT departments. There is a fine line between letting new team members do more without supervision and keeping the lights on by making sure no mistakes are made in the production environment. Leaning towards the latter method and limiting new team members’ access to production deployments may lead to knowledge gaps. How can new team members learn if…
]]>Testing out new network gear and running proof of concept (POC) tests for new technology can be difficult at the best of times, but in today’s environment, it’s even harder. We have made it incredibly easy to try-out a full multi-switch network fabric using the Microsoft SONiC operating system – in a virtual data center that is available to anyone free of charge. Data centers serve a crucial…
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