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Dell Enterprise SONiC Distribution and Hyperconverged, converged infrastructure (H/CI)
Tue, 12 Sep 2023 16:43:10 -0000
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Hyperconverged or converged infrastructures (H/CI) combine key integrated components such as storage, compute, and networking into a single appliance to deliver scalable and high-performance resources.
Compared to a non-converged infrastructure—which requires separate, independent teams to converge in order to deliver business applications—H/Cl integration streamlines data center operations.
However, you need a fabric to connect these highly efficient appliances—and fabrics have distinct hardware and software requirements. Without the fabric, these appliances are underutilized, operate separately, and are unable to leverage their powerful resources. The fabric and related hardware and software features (Layer 2 and Layer 3) that interconnect these appliances are crucial.
Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies: a great fit for H/CI
Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies provides the necessary Layer 2 and Layer 3 features and protocols that enable a robust Ethernet fabric. Dell Enterprise SONiC is a modular, scalable, and purpose-built architecture leveraging open networking standards.
You can use Dell Enterprise SONiC to build a variety of converged infrastructure architectures, ranging from a single VxRail appliance to a single cluster or a stretched cluster in a single site.
Through Dell’s Enterprise SONiC EVPN VXLAN implementation, you can build networking overlays that make resources look like they are part of a large, common resource pool. One primary use case representing this common pool is virtualization in data centers.
Figure 1 shows a typical Layer 2 or Layer 3 Dell Enterprise SONiC and VxRail appliances (both single and cluster).
Figure 1 Dell Enterprise SONiC Distribution and VxRail workloads
A solid foundation
The foundation of a house is similar to an Ethernet fabric, while the roof, framing, and electrical systems represent the integrated components of a Converged Infrastructure appliance. A well-designed Ethernet fabric is just as important as the foundation of a well-built house.
Dell Enterprise SONiC builds and expands on this foundation by providing a robust set of networking Layer 2 and Layer 3 features.
For more information about Dell Enterprise SONiC Distribution and for a detailed VxRail deployment guide with Dell Enterprise SONiC, see: