Cumulus Networkswas acomputer softwarecompany headquartered inMountain View, California,US. The company designed and sold aLinuxoperating systemfor industry standardnetwork switches,along with management software, for largedatacenter,cloud computing,andenterpriseenvironments.
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Networking software,Cloud Networking |
| Founded | January 2010 |
| Founders | JR Rivers Nolan Leake |
| Headquarters | , US |
Key people | Josh Leslie (CEO) |
| Products | Operating System forSwitches |
| Parent | Nvidia |
| Website | cumulusnetworks |
In May 2020, American semiconductor manufacturerNvidiaannounced it was acquiring Cumulus.[1]Post acquisition the company was absorbed into Nvidia's networking business unit, along withMellanox.Nvidia still offers Cumulus Linux.
Background
editCumulus Networks was founded by JR Rivers and Nolan Leake in 2010. The company raised a first round of seed funding in 2012.[2]Cumulus Networks emerged publicly in June 2013[3]after previously operating in stealth mode.[4][5][6]The company is backed byAndreessen Horowitz,Battery Ventures,Sequoia Capital,Peter Wagner and 4 of the 5 originalVMwarefounders.[citation needed]
In 2014Dellbegan offering the option of the Cumulus Linux network OS on Dell's switches.[7]
In 2015,Hewlett Packard Enterprise(HPE) began offering the option of Cumulus Linux on HPE's switches.[8]
In 2016, Mellanox began offering Cumulus Linux on their Spectrum switches.[9]
In 2018,Lenovobegan offering Cumulus Linux on their ThinkSystem Rackswitch line of switches.[10]
On June 20, 2019, the company announced the departure of co-founder JR Rivers, who had been the original CEO and, since March 2016, theCTO.[11]According to the company's website, neither Rivers nor Leake remain on the Board of Directors.
In January 2020, Hewlett Packard announced a partnership with Cumulus to include Cumulus' Linux NetQ software on HPE's network storage products.[12]
In May 2020, Nvidia Corporation announced plans to acquire Cumulus Networks for an undisclosed amount.[1]
Products
editCumulus Linux
editCumulus Linux was their open Linux-basednetworking operating systemforbare metalswitches. It's been based on theDebianLinux distribution.[13]
In a 2017Gartnerreport Cumulus Networks was highlighted as a pioneer ofopen sourcenetworking for developing an open source networking operating system in a market where hardware vendors usually delivered proprietary operating systems pre-installed. According to Gartner, Cumulus Networks had worked around the lack of vendor support for open source networking by deploying bare metal switches with the Cumulus Linux operating system in large corporate networks. 32 percent of the Fortune 50 companies used the Cumulus Linux operating system in theirdata centersin 2017.[14]
NetQ
editNetQ is network state validation software, used during regular operations and for post-mortem diagnostic analysis.[15]
Host Pack
editHost Pack includes software that brings the host to the network through NetQ and FRRouting. Host Pack improves network visibility through NetQ’s end-to-end fabric validation, and helps network connectivity through FRRouting’s open source routing protocol. It enables the host to be part of the layer 3 network, while supporting layer 2overlay networks.[citation needed]
Open source projects
editOpen Network Install Environment (ONIE)
editIn 2012 Cumulus initiated theopen network install environment(ONIE) project. TheOpen Compute Projectturned ONIE into an initiative to define an open source install environment for bare metal network switches. A network switch with a ONIE install environment givesdata centersthe choice of network operating system, disaggregating the networking hardware from the operating system. The Cumulus Linux operating system can be installed on all ONIE compliant switches.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ab"Nvidia acquires Cumulus Networks".Techcrunch.2020-05-04.Retrieved2020-12-10.
- ^Stacey Higginbotham (March 5, 2012)."The lowdown on stealth startup Cumulus Networks".GigaOM.
- ^Deborah Gage (June 19, 2013)."Bringing Linux to Networking, Cumulus Publicly Emerges".The Wall Street Journal.Archived fromthe original(blog)on June 29, 2013.
- ^Paul Venezia (June 19, 2013)."Cumulus Networks unveils 'Cisco killer'".Infoworld.RetrievedDecember 10,2020.
- ^Greg Ferro (June 19, 2013)."Cumulus Networks Casts a Shadow On Cisco Strategy".Archived fromthe originalon June 27, 2013.RetrievedJuly 28,2013.
- ^Jack Clark (June 20, 2013)."Cumulus sighting means storm coming for Cisco".The Register.RetrievedDecember 10,2020.
- ^"Dell Teams With Cumulus Networks To Sell Bare-Metal Switches".Archived fromthe originalon 2015-04-18.Retrieved2015-04-18.
- ^"HP latest to unbundle switch hardware, software".Network World.2015-02-19.Retrieved2020-12-04.
- ^"Mellanox Lets Cumulus Linux Ride its Ethernet Switches".SDxCentral.2016-03-07.Retrieved2017-09-07.
- ^"Lenovo Partners With Cumulus on Open Networking".eWeek.2018-12-11.Retrieved2018-12-12.
- ^"Co-Founder and CTO JR Rivers Leaves Cumulus Networks".Sdx Central.20 June 2019.
- ^"Cumulus Networks and Hewlett Packard team up to offer open networking storage for data centers".Tech Republic.2020-01-07.Retrieved2020-12-10.
- ^"SDN in action: Hands-on with Cumulus Linux".Infoworld.2014-11-19.Retrieved2020-12-10.
- ^Michał Choraś; Ryszard S. Choraś, eds. (2018).Image Processing and Communications Challenges 10: 10th International Conference, IP&C'2018 Bydgoszcz, Poland, November 2018, Proceedings.Springer. p. 151.ISBN9783030036584.
- ^"Cumulus launches NetQ to monitor networks built on its SDN software".SearchSDN.Retrieved2018-07-11.