Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0 Empowers New Intent-Based
Analytics Features, Enhanced VMware vSphere with Automated Remediation,
and Support for Super Spines with Unified Management Plane
MENLO PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Apstra?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#Apstralt;/agt;–Apstra®
Inc., the Intent-Based Data Center Automation company, today
introduced significant advancements to the Apstra Operating System (AOS)
including new Group-Based Policy, enterprise cloudification features,
advanced VMware vSphere connection, and major Intent-Based Analytics
enhancements.
Apstra
Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0 enables businesses to build
an Intent-Based Data Center that increases application reliability and
availability, simplifies deployments and operations through automation,
and reduces costs (OpEx and CapEx). Apstra enables network engineers and
operators to quickly and reliably design, build, operate, and validate a
data center network of any size with scalability for the largest data
centers.
“The network of today and tomorrow is one based on a software-defined
network architecture that spans all infrastructure and environments;
delivers, new levels of automation, programmability and security; and
responds end to end to the needs of applications,” said Pere Monclus,
chief technology officer, networking and security at VMware. “VMware and
Apstra are working together to help enable customers to re-imagine what
the data center network looks like and how it operates, and take full
advantage of this new era of networking to support their digital
transformation initiatives.”
“Enterprises are supporting the demand for digital transformation by
implementing both private and public cloud solutions,” said Yousef
Khalidi, Corporate Vice President for Azure Networking, Microsoft
Corporation. “Apstra Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0 supports
the SONiC operating system in addition to industry requirements for
automation, unified group-based policy, and analytics to create a
consistent experience and outcome between public and private clouds.”
“Business and digital transformation are driving the mandate for data
center infrastructure transformation which also means cloudifying
operations, increasing reliability, and cutting costs,” said Michael
Wood, CMO and Vice President of Product at Apstra. “In addition to being
the only multi-vendor Intent-Based Networking solution on the market,
Apstra Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0 now enables enterprises
to extend Intent-Based Networking beyond automated design, build,
deployment, and operations. This new level of operation is achieved by
applying and validating policy and intent uniformly across center of
data domains (private data center, public cloud, and edge) while also
achieving comparable or better levels of scale and operational
efficiencies as hyperscale cloud providers.”
“Enabling private data centers, edge compute, and public cloud to
operate at exceptional speed and performance is something Mellanox has
driven for over a decade,” said Kevin Deierling, Senior Vice President
Marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “The advanced telemetry of our
Spectrum family of switches is a perfect complement to Apstra’s new
group-based policy and Intent-Based Analytics capabilities which enable
Enterprises and cloud providers to simplify the ongoing operation of
these centers of data while reaching new heights of operational
efficiency across multiple domains.”
“Edgecore Networks provides open network switches to the world’s very
largest network operators and sees the challenges that more traditional
enterprises face to build, secure and operate large data center networks
at scale,” said George Tchaparian, CEO at Edgecore. “Apstra’s support
for automating large Clos topologies including those built using
Edgecore switches, along with their IPv6 and vSphere problem
remediation, enables enterprises to realize the same benefits seen by
hyperscale operators.”
New and enhanced features in AOS 3.0 include:
Multidomain
Unified Group-Based Policy: Enterprises struggle to manage an
increasingly diverse combination of private and public cloud compute
resources. The typical organization has more than one data center and at
least one cloud service provider, all of them utilizing different policy
languages, methods, and infrastructure. Inside a single private data
center, an operator can expect to find an assortment of new and legacy
equipment, from different vendors, all with different management
platforms. Apstra is now expanding the industry’s first Intent-Based
Network technology platform to include Multidomain Unified Group-Based
Policy, which unifies these disparate centers of policy and allows for
automated policy enforcement regardless of the location, type, or
manufacturer of the devices and operating systems. Apstra Multidomain
Unified Group-Based Policy provides a simple user interface and API that
delivers end to end policy deployments, rendered in the vendor-specific
syntax and methods, automatically without requiring the user to know
where the policy needs to be implemented. This intent-derived logic is
unique to Apstra Intent-Based Data Center Automation, freeing customers
from the complexities of ACL syntax, enforcement locations, and
multitenant policy communication.
Enterprise Cloudification and Cloud Scale:
-
5 Stage Clos – Apstra increases the scale of IP Clos fabrics by
adding support for an additional layer of “Super Spines” for building
larger pods with a unified management plane. This enables architects
to design massive IP fabrics for the largest data centers, all the
while maintaining a simple and unified policy for isolating workloads
with EVPNs, VXLAN, ACLs, and VRFs. 5 Stage Clos templates can be
configured and deployed in minutes, even without knowing which vendor
platform will be selected, effectively eliminating hardware selection
and lock-in as a gating factor in the design of a large network. IT
manages these larger deployments with all of the existing features of
Apstra and are able to increase the size of the server hosting
environment at any time. -
External Routing Policies – Environments with multiple business
functions often require complex routing adjustments to prioritize
traffic flows to match business requirements. For example, different
lines of business may utilize separate internet connectivity and
routing scenarios. Each business unit may have unique requirements for
EBGP routing adjustments, in addition, there is often a need to
provide finely tuned summary routes when egressing from a large
network segment. With AOS 3.0, architects can now create External
Routing Policies utilizing prefix-lists, complex route-maps, and
larger summary routes. -
IPv6 Application Support – Apstra Intent-Based Data Center
Automation now supports IPv6 applications, enabling architects to
minimize their use of limited IPv4 address space as well as offering
fully dynamic server and container addressing.
VMware vSphere with Automated Remediation:
Apstra
Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0 extends existing VMware vSphere
capabilities to support automatic remediation of network anomalies.
Apstra Intent-Based Analytics probes constantly check the network to
help assure that the network configuration between the Apstra managed
topology and the vSphere servers are in sync. If a deviation is detected
(i.e. network is missing VLANs configured in vSphere), Apstra can
automatically create the needed VLANs to guarantee that VMs are not
stranded on isolated port groups.
Intent-Based Analytics Momentum:
Apstra Intent-Based Data
Center Automation now supports composable Intent-Based Analytics
dashboards, allowing operators to create application or topology
specific viewports that combine elements of multiple Intent-Based
Analytics probes. A dashboard could include a heatmap of indicators for
Intent-Based Analytics anomalies including the count of anomalies, a
topology heatmap (bandwidth headroom), bar graphs and charts, time
series views, and more. These dashboards automatically update both
content and context in real time, freeing the network operators from
updating the dashboards with each change to the network.
Intent-Based Analytics Reference Values:
Intent-Based
Analytics probes support using the insertion of reference values for
SLAs and maximum desired operating thresholds which dynamically adapt as
intent changes. An operator can simply insert these values during probe
creation and update them at a future point in time to “dial in” the
reporting or alerting they desire. Enterprises can set their SLAs once
and ensure compliance dynamically.
Product Availability and Pricing
Apstra Intent-Based Data
Center Automation 3.0 is generally available immediately at no
additional cost for existing or new Apstra customers.
Additional Resources
Download the Apstra Intent-Based Data
Center Automation 3.0
Data Sheet.
See a demo of Apstra Intent-Based Data Center Automation 3.0, or schedule
a 1:1 with Apstra at Dell Technologies World at Booth #136.
Hear Mike Wood, CMO and VP of Product talk about Real World Deployments
at Dell Technologies World in World Chat Theater A on Wednesday, May 1
at 2:40pm.
Learn more about the latest Apstra deployment at Bloomberg. Read the case
study.
Watch Apstra CTO Sasha Ratkovic on an Intent-Based Data Center
Automation Architecture on-demand webinar.
About Apstra, Inc.
Apstra® Intent-Based Data Center
Automation increases application availability and reliability,
simplifies deployment and operations, and dramatically reduces costs for
Enterprise, Cloud Service Provider, and Telco data centers. Apstra
empowers Intent-Based Data Centers through its pioneering Intent-Based
Networking, distributed system architecture, and vendor-agnostic
overlay. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California and privately funded,
Apstra is a Gartner Cool Vendor and Best of VMworld winner. For more
information visit: www.apstra.com
or follow us on twitter @ApstraInc
or read the Apstra
Blog.
Apstra and the Apstra logos are registered trademarks of Apstra,
Inc., and other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their
respective owners. VMware and vSphere are registered trademarks
or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States
and other jurisdictions.
Tweet This:
@ApstraInc announces #AOS 3.0! Scaling
#IntentBased #DataCenter #Automation with new features #GroupBasedPolicy
#Cloudification #IntentBasedNetworking.
Contacts
For Apstra:
Mira Woods
mira@apstra.com
@MediaEagle
(617)
513-7020