Network Automation for Ethernet Switching

As organizations look to take advantage of innovative technology like 5G, cloud, IoT and more, they look to innovative networking deployments that incorporate new ways of thinking about automation — think infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD and more. With the rapid pace of growth, network traffic continues to grow at an exponential rate and organizations are left with infrastructure that is harder to manage and deploy. Network automation has thus become a key component in a business’ ability to scale by limiting resource demand, mitigating errors and helping operators manage more switches.

The most advanced automation-compatible network operating system

NVIDIA supports automation like no other. NVIDIA® Cumulus Linux offers complete integration with any standard automation tool by standardizing on one unified language, Linux. It works seamlessly — without the need for custom plugins or proprietary scripts. And with Linux-based switches, existing automation tools and DevOps practices can be leveraged in networking, also commonly known as NetDevOps. Whether you’re using Saltstack, Puppet, Ansible or custom automation scripts, Cumulus Linux makes network automation easier than ever. Learn more about NVIDIA Cumulus Linux.

Production-ready network automation by NVIDIA

As organizations try to keep up with the pace of exponential growth of network traffic, network engineers are faced with the challenge of building fully-automated networks at rapid pace and without error. This can often look like a tedious process of piecing together various untested scripts and proof-of-concept playbooks, or worse, struggling to run two or three virtual devices on a laptop to hand-craft automation. This was modern network automation. NVIDIA is now offering the first production-ready automation solution. No other vendor out there delivers such a robust, production-ready automation solution that is validated and ready to go out of the box. This suite of automation and testing includes:

Ready-to-go automation using Ansible. It’s essentially a cut and paste.
A fully populated variables file object model
Complete Jinja2 templates
Ansible playbooks and a full battery of network validation tests enabling continuous integration (CI).
The complete and ideal framework for a tangible “infrastructure-as-code” deployment
Utilizes Ansible core modules without the need for any add-ons or plugins
Open source and available on GitLab.

Access NVIDIA Cumulus in the Cloud to see production-ready automation in action >

So what does this all mean to you?

NVIDIA Cumulus Linux is built for agility. By standardizing your entire data center on a consistent Linux operating model, network automation is flexible, scalable and easier than ever. As always, we offer unprecedented choice. Choose whatever network automation software you’d like, and it will run seamlessly with NVIDIA Cumulus Linux. If you’re looking for a quick and easy, out-of-the-box solution, then check out our production-ready automation solution — it’s open source and available on GitLab, or you can give it a spin using Cumulus in the Cloud (CitC).

Access NVIDIA Cumulus in the Cloud to see production-ready automation in action >

Experience production-ready network automation

LEARN MORE

Learn More About Network Automation

5 Network Automation Tips and Tricks

Download this quick and easy tips and tricks paper to learn how to automate your data center network like industry leaders for NetOps efficiency.

READ DOCUMENT ›

Building Scalable Data Center Networks

Download this whitepaper to learn how to build scalable networks that are future-proofed intelligent design, automation and modern technologies.

READ DOCUMENT ›

Production-ready Automation

Cumulus Networks is announcing the release of its production-ready automation solution for organizations moving towards fully automated networks in order to take advantage of infrastructure-as-code. Watch this video to learn more about the solution.

WATCH VIDEO ›

Automation partners

nvidia-automation-partner-ansible-2c50-d

"Cumulus Networks and Ansible are both focused on enabling customers to scale out without added cost and complexity. The shared vision of simplifying networking and automation creates a complementary scenario for customers to leverage both product lines with ease. We are excited to work with Cumulus Networks to help customers set up next generation data center environments."

Said Ziouani, CEO, Ansible

"Jointly, Cumulus Networks and CFEngine are able to deliver a fully automated and commoditized data center. Using off-the-shelf server, storage- and network hardware, we offer software to help next generation infrastructure engineers automate all data center functions from one console, as one unified team."