News

Dell EMC Unveils New SD-WAN Offerings

• By David Ramel
• 09/03/2019

Dell Technologies has unveiled new offerings in the software-defined wide-area-networking (SD-WAN) space, incorporating hardware from Dell EMC and VMware-based software.

Announced at the recent VMworld conference, the offerings include:

• Dell EMC SD-WAN Solution, which combines VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud software with appliances available in multiple configurations to deliver branch access to cloud services, private datacenters and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based enterprise applications
• Dell EMC SmartFabric Director, a network orchestration solution developed with VMware for synchronizing the deployment of a physical switch fabric with a virtual network in order to boost comprehensive visibility of both physical and virtual network layers

The Dell EMC SD-WAN Solution has three key components:

• SD-WAN Edge powered by VMware: networking specific, purpose-built appliances designed for high efficiency and reliability
• SD-WAN Orchestrator: cloud-based management and orchestration software services from VMware, managed by Dell EMC
• SD-WAN Gateways: a global network of more secure, application-focused access gateways from VMware to handle WAN traffic

The VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud component of the Dell EMC SD-WAN Solution includes:

• A choice of public, private or hybrid cloud network for enterprise-grade connection to cloud and enterprise applications
• Branch office enterprise appliances and optional datacenter appliances
• Software-defined control and automation
• Virtual services delivery

Dell EMC SmartFabric Director, meanwhile, is said by the company to enable physical switch underlay infrastructure to keep pace with the demands of ever-changing virtualized and software-defined networks.

"Dell EMC SmartFabric Director enables datacenter operators to easily build, operate and monitor an open network underlay fabric based on Dell EMC PowerSwitch Series switches," Dell Technologies said in a statement. "This is important for organizations that have embraced software-defined networking and need to help make sure their physical underlay networks are finely tuned for that overlay environment. A lack of visibility between the two layers can lead to provisioning and configuration errors, hampering network performance."

The company identified key features as:

• VMware vSphere and VMware NSX-T Data Center Integration: Tight integration with VMware vCenter and NSX-T enables the physical underlay/fabric to be correctly provisioned for the smooth functioning of application workloads in a VMware software-defined datacenter
• Leaf/Spine Fabric Automation: SmartFabric Director uses a declarative model that allows the user to express intent with a set of three well-defined fabric types. Fabric discovery is an ongoing process and ensures that the wiring is consistent with the user-defined intent and removes guesswork for rapid auto-provisioning
• Fabric Visibility: SmartFabric Director supports highly scalable and flexible streaming telemetry to gather key operational data and statistics from the fabric switches. Comprehensive, highly intuitive visualization of the time-series data and other information greatly simplifies day-to-day fabric operations
• Fabric Lifecycle Management: Upgrading switch images is a critical operation in a data center. SmartFabric Director automates the download, install and verification process and ensures that switches are upgraded with the correct images

Last week, the company said the Dell EMC SD-WAN Solution was already generally available (but we couldn't find a link to its site), while Dell EMC SmartFabric Director would be available this month (September 2019).