Earlier this year I got the chance to chat with Cumulus Networks as part of a series of articles I was working on with my friends at Gestalt IT. It was an interesting piece of research focussed on an area that was new to me, the idea of open networking, using a software driven approach to deliver infrastructure with the scale and flexibility that is required to meet the demands of many modern businesses.
Cumulus introduce this idea as part of their Infrastructure with Purpose strategy an approach that tries to change the way we think about delivering infrastructure, since writing those articles I’ve been keen to have them on the show to introduce the concept to the Tech Interviews audience.
This week, I get that chance as I’m joined by Cumulus’s Pete Lumbis to explore the idea of Infrastructure with Purpose, Pete is Senior Technical Marketing Manager at Cumulus, but don’t be put off, he’s a networking techie at heart maintaining his CCDE as well as having a long history In the networking field.
During this week’s show we talk about who Cumulus Networks are, what they do and how their approach to networking keeps “everyone honest”. We explore the current state of the networking market and how we are currently approaching building infrastructure and why this may need to change.
We talk about why infrastructure does matter, regardless of how visible it is and why it’s important to start asking questions about what we are trying to achieve as well as why we continue to do the things we do.
We discuss how an open approach to networking provides us maximum flexibility in deployment, how we can maintain existing relationships, or make infrastructure decisions based on where it brings us value, rather than dictated to by someone else’s decision.
We then take a look at some specifics of the Cumulus approach and how basing their solution on a full Debian Linux implementation provides multiple benefits to those adopting this new approach, from well-known interfaces, to simple integration with existing tools and infrastructure, all providing significant value when it comes to technology adoption.
We wrap up discussing how a more software and programmatical driven approach to infrastructure is allowing us to test our networks extensively before deployment and how this is allowing us to hugely de-risk our network infrastructure.
Infrastructure with Purpose is an interesting approach and one in which, alongside other elements of a more software driven infrastructure can provide real benefit.
To find out more about Cumulus visit www.cumulusnetworks.com you can also try out their technology in their cloud based labs at www.cumulusnetworks.com/citc if that’s not for you, you can try their Cumulus VX platform a fully functional virtual implementation so you can test their platform in your virtual environment.
You can also catch up with Pete on twitter @peteccde and Cumulus @cumulusnetworks
If you want to read the articles behind this episode you’ll find them on Gestalt IT here.
If you’d have a question or would like to be a Tech Interviews guest contact podcast@techstringy.com
Thanks for listening.
Techstringy 