Big Switch Networks Reviews

One of my customers had an enormous amount of data that had to be processed and it had to be close to the user so that the user could exploit the data. Because of the sheer volume of data, they needed an on-premise private cloud solution that was automated to provide them rapid access to the data.

What I liked about the solution is the quick and easy way you can build a network data center fabric. It's fully automated and you can integrate it with third-party technology like VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. That was the part that I liked the most because it gave you a lot of flexibility to integrate it with third-party solutions and third-party networks, whilst at the same time maintaining the automated nature of the solution.

I think if I was to say something that could be improved, it would be a multi-data center nature of the implementation. Meaning, having an active-active data center with multiple entrance-exit points. I think that feature could be improved to provide a kind of anycast gateway solution into the functionality that would make it a lot more flexible and versatile.

Maybe also making the solution a bit more like the NSX-T from VMware, more on the logical part of the solution, like micro-segmentation and the ability to have a distributed firewall across the whole solution, to implement it in an easier way than they currently do with the security aspect of the solution.

I've done a lot of work with this solution over the last 18 months. I'm primarily an architect, but I don't just do the architectural work. I also help the customer choose the solution that's best adapted for their environment based on their requirements. Then I help them with all the implementation, configuration, and migration.

The solution is very stable. 

The scalability is very good on the solution. When I was using it at the end of last year, up to 128 leaf switches, that's 64 pair of leaf switches on top of rack switches, could be integrated into the solution.

The technical support was always very good. When I was working with them, they'd just recently been integrated into the Arista Network technical support. I don't know how that's changed over the last 12 months, but I grew up with the solution, so I knew a lot of the members of the support team from Big Switch Networks before it was integrated with Arista. 

The initial setup was very straightforward and easy to manage from an operational point of view.

I handled the deployment on my own. What becomes difficult, like any solution, is that depending on the size of the solution and the number of switches required by the customer, you might need more than one person to do the stack and rack, which is putting the switches in the racks and doing the cabling. That would just be because of the sheer quantity of switches, so you might need a cabling team and some basic field technicians just to do stack and rack cabling. The actual configuration and deployment of the solution, though, is a one-person job. It can take one to two days, depending on the size of the solution, for a basic installation of the solution. If the customer wants a really complex integration, it could be five days' work.

The licensing cost depends on the number of switches that are going to be licensed to run the software. I wasn't on the commercial side of this project, so I don't really have a lot of details, but it basically depends on the number of leaf and spine switches that are running the software.

I think it's an easy, versatile solution to implement. I think it provides a very good alternative to Cisco ACI or VMware NSX-T. The big advantage is that if you need additional functionality like NSX-T, or micro-segmentation, you can integrate that kind of product with the Big Switch solution. I don't know how it's evolved over the last 12 months, because I know that Arista had planned to integrate it into one of their solutions, but when I was working with it last year, it was very good.

I'd give this solution a good nine out of ten because I found it easy to deploy, flexible and evaluative.