Faberwork created a data center management system with advanced visuals.
We show how to increase the interoperability across device drivers.
Client
Faberwork’s client was a software operations firm offering a sophisticated, integrated management system for telecom carriers and data centers.
Challenge
The days in computer science when a computer’s operating system could control one device like an attached printer have long passed. Now, the cloud, rather than a rack of servers in the back room, process data and controls machines. To make this efficient, massive data centers have grown especially in the United States.
Demand for data centers has grown exponentially with the surge in IoT, AI, and other web-based uses. At the same time, the sheer variety of the types of computer feeds and machine types have also added complexity to data centers.
In addition, the mere movement of so many large and diverse use cases to data centers with their multiplicity of protocols and devices has demanded an evolution in device management. Against this backdrop, the client wanted to have the capacity to attract the widest possible array of new customers.
The Client asked Faberwork to enhance its current Operation Support System (OSS) to manage data centers which had the flexibility to control a wide range of output devices. The system needed to be able to entertain the broadest set of inputs so that the data center controller itself did not become a constraint on the machine processing of users. And Faberwork needed to do this quickly and within budget.
Solution
Faberwork chose to implement the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) in the management system. Faberwork selected SONiC because it was highly adaptable and provided flexibility within the management system. It also operated securely and at cloud scale, which was critical given the frenetic pace at which the Internet, IoT, and AI were evolving. Change in such a dynamic system was to be expected and new capabilities for the system needed to be implemented without affecting the end user.
SONiC was open source and publicly available at GitHub Repository. SONiC is an extensible platform, with important data center users like Microsoft, Nvidia, and many others. Faberwork used other software and state of the art innovations in the management system to implement the Leaf-Spine Architecture for the Data Centers for the client.
Results
Faberwork’s customer was extremely pleased to have their specifications met and exceeded in time and under budget. They asked for and received:
- a well-functioning and robust data center management system with the state of the art visualization framework
- a device driver that functions well in a highly variable environment and
- a system that captures all relevant information in its framework
Faberwork’s choice of SONiC based device drivers were designed for the demands of a modern cloud data center. As a result, retrofitting software for other functions was avoided. The Client’s new system used network software which was separated from the underlying hardware. This increased the interoperability across vendors. The new device drivers were not constraints on innovation, facilitating the growth of the data centers the Client managed.
In addition, the open architecture of SONiC’s choice removed the users’ dependence on a single distribution supplier. This relaxed any uncertainty among the Client’s user base about the long-term operability of the system and its concern about new additions, and bugs as well as security patches.
The end result was a continuing collaboration between the Client and Faberwork in data center innovation.
“Faberwork’s efforts moved the ‘device management’ of data centers into ‘firm management.’ Businesses can now manage their data in real-time. And our Client couldn’t be more pleased,”
—Yogesh Sharma, Senior Vice President (Delivery) at Faberwork
