Infinera Arista alliance targets data centre interconnect

Infinera has teamed up with Arista Networks to deliver scalable metro and regional cloud networking technology that combines high-performance data centre switching with high-capacity optical transport.

The technology partnership will see Arista integrate its 7000 Series switching portfolio with Infinera’s Cloud Xpress platform to deliver an interoperable system designed to suit the requirements of the data centre and cloud networking markets.

“Arista and Infinera are redefining the data centre interconnect market, said Ed Chapman, vice president, business development and alliances for Arista Networks. “Disruptive applications such as high-performance computing, IP storage networking, content-intensive networking, and virtualised data centres are paramount for Cloud-scale web customers."

This technology alliance follows successful interoperability tests that were carried out earlier this year. The tests validated each company’s technology to determine that the combination of Arista's switches and the Infinera Cloud Xpress platform could deliver the levels of interoperability required for bandwidth-intensive applications.

The pair have issued application notes describing situations in which they believe their technology is a good match: high-capacity metro cloud networking for such companies as Internet content providers and large enterprises, and the low-latency data centre requirements of companies such as financial institutions.

“We teamed up with Arista to deliver optimised solutions for the rapidly growing Cloud services market,” said Ashoka Valia, senior vice president, business development at Infinera. “We believe our alliance offers best in class solutions, combining Arista’s programmable platforms with Infinera’s Cloud Xpress Ethernet transport to deliver state-of-the-art scale, performance and energy efficiency for data centre interconnection applications.”