Pica8 and NEC Demonstrate 100G Multivendor SDN Switching Fabric

Palo Alto, CA, March 22, 2018 — Pica8, a leading provider of advanced, open networking software, today announced that it is demonstrating a multivendor 100G switch fabric using the NEC ProgrammableFlow SDN Controller to drive its PICOS® network operating system on core and edge switches from Dell EMC, NEC and Edgecore to facilitate open networking.

With this commercial demonstration, NEC is showing how its SDN ProgrammableFlow Controller can work with Pica8’s PICOS to enable open networking across a variety of switch hardware vendors to deliver a multitenant 100G switch fabric with high scalability and zero-touch provisioning. The demonstration includes PICOS running on a Dell Z9100 core switch linked to one Edgecore 5812 edge switch and one NEC PF5340 edge switch.

Multitenancy is essential for securely isolating tenants on shared networks within data centers, enterprise networks and service provider environments, while maintaining high throughput and ease of operations through zero-touch provisioning at the edges with full visibility throughout the network. The demonstration shows the broad interoperability of both the NEC SDN controller and PICOS on core and edge switches.

“The combination of NEC’s ProgrammableFlow Controller and Pica8’s breadth of supported platforms can deliver a high-performance, highly-available network fabric without vendor lock-in,” said Don Clark, director of business development for NEC Enterprise Communication Technologies. NEC continues to be committed to customer choice through open networking.”

“Paired with SDN controllers like NEC’s SDN ProgrammableFlow Controller, PICOS provides an open network solution that delivers network visibility, scalability, programmability, and zero-touch provisioning with a low cost of ownership,” said Jeff Paine, vice president of marketing at Pica8. “This demonstration shows how PICOS can be an essential component in an overall SDN solution, and we are excited that NEC has chosen to work with us on this project.”