Arista - The Master of One

By David Anthony

HPE’s partnership with Arista is the latest stage in the rebalancing of their switching portfolio. Arista’s products focus exclusively on ultra-low latency and software defined data centre switching, ideal for financial services and service provider networks. This is the perfect complement to HPE’s Comware operating system switch range for the traditional, on premise, data centre and Aruba at the ever-evolving intelligent edge.

What makes Arista stand out in these sectors? It concentrates exclusively on that end of the market, focussing all its resources there. Arista has never tried to be a Jack-Of-All-Trades, it just masters one. Arista switches use two specific features to achieve this, EOS and SysDB.

Firstly, an open architecture allows the user to adapt and enhance the platform to meet their specific requirement. Built on a Linux kernel and utilising a modular format, Arista’s Extensible Operating System enables administrators to integrate automation software such as Chef and Puppet, enables network configuration in the same manner as servers and storage, allowing seamless data centre orchestration. With EOS Software Development Kit (SDK), customers can develop their own customized EOS applications in C++, Python, Ruby or Go. These applications can, for example, manage interfaces, IP and MPLS routes, Access Control Lists (ACLs), as well as use a range of APIs to communicate between the switch and monitoring or network controllers.

Secondly, SysDB offers a centralised database for all switch processes. All state-changes trigger a notification through Sysdb to all processes registered for that event. This allows the system to operate under intense load with great efficiency and higher resiliency. EOS also allows in-service software upgrades of individual modules without any impact to application traffic.

Arista switches thus provide super-fast, ultra-reliable performance for rapid response markets such as the financial sector and the automation and visibility required by highly scalable networks such as cloud service providers. 

HPE now has three distinct product ranges specifically designed for the markets they cater for. Aruba provides the latest levels of security, performance and adaptability needed for ever-changing mobility networks in the campus. Comware switches provide the familiarity and dependability desired in traditional data centres. And now, Arista enables customers in these newer, highly challenging, technology driven environments to maximize their systems and opportunities.

For more information contact the Westcoast Networking team today on networking@westcoast.co.uk