Comment (5)Dell's open networking strategy is starting to pay dividends. The company today announced software-as-a-service provider Medallia as the first customer of its open networking solution with partner Cumulus Networks, and said it's hoping to announce carrier customers by the first half of 2015.
Tom Burns, vice president of Dell Networking, tells Light Reading that the company has made progress in the service provider sector, counting a cable MSO among its first trial wins for its open networking suite, and is "working toward the first half of next year with carrier announcements. The carriers are taking more time testing, whereas a company like Medallia is ready to go full force with an open networking strategy." (See Medallia Takes Open Path With Dell, Cumulus.)
For now, Dell Technologies (Nasdaq: DELL) remains something of an outlier in the service provider and data center networking markets, but it has been attempting to separate itself from incumbent vendors by assertively taking the open networking path, forging pacts with other open networking specialists like Cumulus Networks and Big Switch Networks . (See Dell Opens Arms to Cumulus OS and Open Season: Dell Taps Into Big Switch.)
Burns says Medallia has been a Dell computing customer, but not a networking customer. The provider of customer experience management solutions was eyeing Cumulus for its Linux-based network operating system when Dell stepped up to show Medallia how its top-of-rack switches would support the Cumulus OS.
Now, if those service providers would just step up the pace of their trials...
— Dan O'Shea, Managing Editor, Light Reading
