Dear Network Operators,
Brace yourselves for your wishes to buy or build technology that Facebook uses to run its massive data centers will come true!
In order to attain the enduring upscale needs of its mundane services, Facebook designs its own switches, racks and networking software. Now, Facebook stated that it’s opening up key networking and data center technologies which include its Wedge switch, board management software, and a server called Yosemite.
Produced by Facebook ‘s non-profit Open Compute Project (OCP) in 2011 as a way for data center operators to collaborate with hundreds of companies on new hardware designs that can be produced by low-cost manufacturers, the “Wedge” switch is essentially an open source model for hardware that will be on sale soon from Accton Technologies, a Taiwanese manufacturer while Cumulus Networks and Big Switch Networks will provide software for it. Facebook wants “to work with not just the best minds under one roof, but the best minds in the world — and that’s where the Open Compute Project [OCP] comes in,” the company explained on its blog. That is why Facebook is making its technology public. OCP products have helped Facebook save US$2 billion over the past three years.
The Wedge Switch
Wedge is quite revolutionary as it targets the need for application-specific networking. It uses commodity hardware as a microserver in addition to an open-source operating system code-named FBOSS to allow networking teams to create custom switching platforms for specific uses, from hardware and software aspects.
Wedge is a modular platform that renders Facebook distinctive important features that aren’t found in any traditional hardware. For example, the modular server-style architecture through which Facebook is able to swap in any type of server control module and retain the feature set of the switch. This high advantage allows Facebook buys numerous control units at once. Another feature of Wedge is the monitoring capability provided by a Linux-based operating system.
Wedge and FBOSS are ideas that enables developers and engineers to build upon to transform the network from a passive transport to an active participant in the application ecosystem. Wedge is a daring step in positioning white-box switching in the new application economy.
Instead of building Wedge switches, Network operators can buy them over the counter. Accton plans to sell Wedge switches in the first half of of the year whereas Cumulus Networks and Big Switch Networks will support the hardware with their SDN software.
On the other hand, Facebook also launched OpenBMC, open low-level board management software to boost the speed of feature development for BMC chips. Wedge will be the first hardware supporting OpenBMC, followed by Facebook‘s 6-pack switch.
Furthermore, Facebook has also introduced Yosemite, a system-on-a-chip compute server to significantly boost speed to make Facebook‘s traffic much more efficient. It “supports four independent servers at a performance-per-watt superior to traditional data center servers for heavily parallelizable workloads,” Facebook explained.
