Network virtualization vendor Midokura recently announced details of a partnership with Cumulus Networks that expands its ability to connect virtual, software defined networks to physical infrastructures and workloads. Midokura’s Midonet platform is a distributed, software-defined, networking platform that specializes in virtualized networking in a space that features the likes of Juniper Contrail, PLUMgrid, and VMware NSX. Cumulus Networks, meanwhile, offers Cumulus Linux, a Linux-based operating system for networking hardware. Whereas Midokura’s Midonet platform previously was able to connect virtualized networking infrastructures to non-virtualized infrastructures by way of its support of Layer 2 Gateway technology, its partnership with Cumulus Networks expands its ability to support non-virtualized infrastructures by adding enhanced speed, automation, scalability and performance to the connection between virtualized and physical workloads. Midonet connects to physical network switches that reside within a Cumulus Linux-based OS by means of a VxLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) gateway.
Because VxLAN represents an industry standard networking technology, Midokura’s partnership with Cumulus Networks affirms its commitment to supporting industry protocols that mitigate against proprietary networking protocols and operating systems that encourage vendor lock-in. Overall, the Midonet collaboration with Cumulus Linux promises dramatic improvements in the speed, scalability, performance and simplicity of networking infrastructures. Midokura and Cumulus Networks plan to offer a preview of their partnership in May 2014 and a general availability release in Q3 2014. The partnership between the two companies promises to push the envelope with respect to open standards in software defined networking in addition to improving the economics of building large-scale networks that encompass a combination of virtual and physicalized infrastructures.
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