The two companies are working together on server software designed to connect virtual networks with applications running on physical servers.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

March 19, 2014

2 Min Read
Midokura, Cumulus Bridge Virtual & Reality

Midokura and Cumulus Networks are collaborating on server software designed to help connect virtual networks with stick-in-the-mud applications that insist on remaining grounded in reality. Certain applications, such as legacy and database software, cannot be virtualized and have to run on physical servers. In other cases, business managers won't allow the applications to be virtualized. These applications can be like anvils, weighing down service providers' efforts to virtualize their networks.

Midokura and Cumulus's server is designed to provide connections at line speeds between applications running on physical servers with other workloads running on virtual machines on a virtual network. The companies plan a technology preview by May, with general availability in the third quarter.

Midokura develops software designed to allow Web-scale cloud providers -- companies building enormous clouds to rival Facebook or Amazon -- to virtualize their networks. Rather than using an SDN approach, which requires running on commodity open-switch hardware, Midokura boasts that its MidoNet software runs as an overlay network, allowing cloud providers to keep their existing network infrastructures. (See Midokura Does Net Virtualization at Web Scale and Defining SDN & NFV.)

Cumulus develops a Linux OS that runs on data center networking hardware. (See Dell Opens Arms to Cumulus OS.) The joint server will allow MidoNet to connect to physical switches running Cumulus Linux, allowing network traffic flows from virtual machines to physical machines through the VxLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) gateway.

— Mitch Wagner, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profileFollow me on Facebook Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

Want to learn more about SDN and the transport network? Check out the agenda for Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE), which will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The event combines the educational power of interactive conference sessions devised and hosted by Heavy Reading's experienced industry analysts with multi-vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept networking and application showcases. For more on the event, the topics, and the stellar service provider speaker lineup, see Telecommunication Luminaries to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event in June.

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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