The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined … · 2018-05-17 · For INFrASTrUcTUre & oPerATIoNS ProFeSSIoNALS The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined

The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018Tools And Technology: The Infrastructure Transformation Playbook

by Andre KindnessMarch 7, 2018

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Key TakeawaysArista Networks, Juniper Networks, And Huawei Lead The PackForrester’s research uncovered a market in which Arista Networks, Juniper Networks, and Huawei lead the pack. Cisco Systems, Cumulus Networks, and Extreme Networks offer competitive options. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Pluribus Networks, and Dell lag behind but are still Contenders.

I&o Pros Seek open, Programmable Data center Switching HardwareThe market for data center hardware platforms for SDN is growing because more I&O professionals see these platforms as a way to address their top challenges. I&O pros increasingly trust their providers to act as strategic partners and advise them on their data center networking decisions.

multilanguage Programming, Disaggregation, And consistency Are Key DifferentiatorsAs legacy switching technology becomes outdated and less effective, improved multilanguage programming, disaggregation, and consistency will dictate which providers lead the pack. Vendors that can provide these assets position themselves to successfully deliver hardware platforms for SDN to their customers.

Why Read This Report

In our 40-criteria evaluation of data center hardware platforms for software-defined networking (SDN), we identified the nine most significant players — Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Arista Networks, Extreme Networks (which recently acquired Brocade Communications System’s data center networking business), Cisco Systems, Cumulus Networks, Dell, Huawei, Juniper Networks, and Pluribus Networks — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps infrastructure and operations professionals (I&O) make the right choice.

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Table Of Contents

In An Era Of Uncertainty, Build A Flexible Networking Platform

Open And Programmable Data Center Networking Hardware Evolves With I&O

Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking Overview

Evaluated Vendors And Inclusion Criteria

Vendor Profiles

Leaders

Strong Performers

Contenders

Supplemental Material

Related Research Documents

Adapt Your Network Strategy To Thrive In A Shifting Ecosystem

Five Tenets Define Virtual Network Infrastructure, A Bold New Business Network

Vendor Landscape: Programmable Data Center Hardware Switches, Q3 2017

FOR INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS PROFESSIONALS

The Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018Tools And Technology: The Infrastructure Transformation Playbook

by Andre Kindnesswith Glenn O’Donnell, Clare Garberg, and Diane Lynch

March 7, 2018

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Tools And Technology: The Infrastructure Transformation Playbook

In An Era Of Uncertainty, Build A Flexible Networking Platform

I&O professionals strive to refine the abstraction of underlying resources to improve customer experiences and business execution, especially within enterprise data centers. Teams continue to trim away legacy approaches and mold enterprise data centers into an integrated software abstraction layer that presents the resources of the data center as pools of virtual and physical resources. This full vision of a software-defined data center (SDDC) promises flexible, easy, and fast composition of resources into arbitrary user-defined services.1 However, many SDDC initiatives hit a roadblock when it comes to integrating network infrastructure into the SDDC transformation. The networking market doesn’t offer an off-the-shelf, enterprise-ready data center virtual network strategy or solution. Instead, we see:

› cloud leaders touting dissimilar open, programmable networking strategies. Facebook Google, and other tier 1 cloud platforms that have helped transform the networking arena each have very different networking operating systems, hardware, and designs. For example, Google’s OpenFlow-based switch won’t work within Facebook’s open compute project approach.2 While some of the hardware might be commercially available, these operating systems, management solutions, and operational methods remain closed off from the enterprise.

› A confusing set of terms and definitions. To build a next-generation network, I&O teams need a clear networking strategy and sufficient understanding of technology.3 Just 55% of telecom technology decision makers tell us they believe that SDN encompasses a programmable, automated, and orchestrated network consisting of physical and virtual switches, routers, firewalls, and other networking functions (see Figure 1). Thirty-six percent believe that SDN is a network overlay completely independent of the hardware layer.

› Halfhearted vendor support. Advanced services, such as firewall, optimization, and load balancing, remain relatively unchanged in the era of SDN and software-defined wide-area network (SDWAN). Other than a few simplistic tweaks, networking vendors have stood back and mostly watched to see what they’ll need to do to support virtualizing the network. For example, after a decade of development, OpenStack’s networking module, now called Neutron, supports only basic switching features.

› Innovative companies that are breaking away from vendor lock-in. Amazon, Google, Netflix, and other innovate companies have created next-generation networks that are flexible, large, resilient, and secure (see Figure 2). They’ve shown enterprises that they don’t need to buy network platforms and their components from market leaders, nor do they need to acquire switch OS and hardware from a single vendor.4 The old axiom “no one ever got fired for buying [x]” appears to be dying.

› Lack of programmability and automation standards. There are many standards on how to transport information between two endpoints. However, management, automation, and programmability functions have sat it out on the sidelines of standards bodies. Customers might run across one vendor supporting NETCONF, XML, and Yang and another offering only JSON, OpenConfig, and Yang. The type of API and the features configurable through this API also vary widely.




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› Vendors playing catch-up. Some I&O leaders have told Forrester that the traditional networking vendors don’t seem to be leading change and have even fallen behind. Customers, not vendors, have become networking platform innovators in creating next-generation networks. Verizon, for example, combined Big Switch Networks, Dell, and OpenStack Neutron within five data centers to create a networking platform that could support a large-scale network functions virtualization (NFV) deployment.5

› overlays that don’t solve every challenge. Tunneling and encapsulation technology have helped overcome some challenges with SDN, SDWAN, virtualizing the network, and virtual machine (VM) movement. Overlay technology can go only so far. Ultimately, SDN must manipulate the network’s physical infrastructure, especially because many of today’s enterprise data center servers remain on bare metal and are therefore unable to use SDN overlays like VMware’s NSX as the only SDN approach to data centers.6

FIGUre 1 Software-Defined Networking Remains A Confusing Concept

“Which of the following attributes do you believe describe(s) the term ‘software-defined networking’?”(Multiple responses accepted)

Base: 2,510 global telecommunications technology decision makers at companies with 20+ employees

Source: Forrester Data Global Business Technographics® Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017

Not sure 3%

A network built with white-box switchesand third-party software

26%

A fast and dumb network 31%

Network overlay 36%

Network function virtualization 50%

A programmable, automated, and orchestratednetwork created by the separation of

the data plane and control plane

53%

A programmable, automated, and orchestratednetwork consisting of physical and virtual switches,

routers, �rewalls, and other networking functions55%




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FIGUre 2 Cloud Providers Lead Other Verticals On Creating Next-Generation Networking Platforms

100% virtual networkbusinesswide

Command-line-driven network

Adoption level

Half of sections

Virtual network adoption curve

Manufacturing

Retail

Hospitality

Government(overall) Entertainment

Finance market (overall)

Tier 1 public cloud(Google, Amazon WebServices, or Facebook)

Finance market(i.e., high-frequency traders)

Tier 1 telecommunications

Most sections

Some sections

open And Programmable Data center Networking Hardware evolves With I&o

Even though I&O professionals won’t find an off-the-shelf virtual network, networking teams are under pressure to do something to support SDDC. Other teams feel the heat when facing data center networks issues like bandwidth limitations; vendor end-of-support notifications; legacy architectures; or unsupported protocols, such as VXLAN. With all the uncertainty about the form that virtual network platforms will take for the enterprise, I&O professionals tell Forrester they need to buy switching hardware that:

› Accommodates various stages and journeys to private cloud. Forrester knows that companies not only are in different stages of evolving but have chosen different paths to private and hybrid cloud.7 This means that network switching solutions will have to be open and flexible to replace the current equipment at a company’s evolutionary stage and have the capacity to evolve to where I&O teams want to go over the next five to seven years.




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› ensures consistency of switching capabilities for hardware and virtual environments. I&O pros can’t view data center networks as simply a bunch of physical switches in a single data center. A businesswide network has switches moving data inside multiple data centers, virtual environments, and cloud platforms, and even to where the business touches customers. To deliver on an SDDC’s value, I&O professionals, orchestration and automation software, and monitoring systems require consistent virtual and physical switch features and interfaces. Unique configurations will kill automation and efficiency.

› enables the emergence of Forrester’s virtual network infrastructure (VNI) framework. To create a businesswide virtual network, programmable data center networking switches are an essential component in supporting and delivering on Forrester’s five VNI tenets (see Figure 3).

› evolves with infrastructure and operations as a linear transition, not a step function. Businesses and I&O organizations can’t afford dramatic, sudden changes when it comes to adopting new, unproven infrastructure technology. Forrester has found that organizations don’t fully utilize the value of new technology for up to two years because it takes that long to evolve skills, metrics, and processes. Progress is an evolution of trust more than an evolution of technology. Instead of wasting value for that period of time on something their teams may never use, enterprises should instead invest in technology that provides value along the entire product life cycle.

› manages the right balance of risk. With so much current uncertainty about technology that will deliver an automated and programmable SDDC virtual network, I&O organizations can’t lock themselves into one approach. Network switching hardware platforms should be open and flexible to maximize switching functionality and interface with as many controllers, management systems, and networking services as possible.

› Supports a variety of programming approaches. The future of networking is morphing from traditional network engineers to those who can write code.8 With abstraction, these new network engineers — software developers, coders, and development and operations (DevOps) professionals — have different requirements, goals, and expectations when either controlling or leveraging network resources.9 Multiple programming languages, modeling approaches, and protocols have become essential ingredients for switching hardware and operating systems.




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FIGUre 3 Build A Business Network Using Forrester’s Five VNI Tenets

Forrester’s five VNI tenets

Soft/hardware-powered1 Leverage both software and hardware networkcomponents in the architecture.

Businesswide fabric2 Recognize that the digital business network is a fabricconnecting every interrelated part of the business.

Interwoven layers3 Enable a vertical interaction of layer 2 through layer 7throughout the network.

Automated actions4 Build out a network automation and orchestration systemthat is programmable.

Empowered users5 Create a network that empowers others, especiallycustomers, to use the network as needed.

Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking Overview

To assess the state of the market for open, programmable data center hardware platforms for SDN and to see how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top vendors in this category. After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we developed a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 40 criteria and assessed more than 400 capabilities, which we grouped into three high-level buckets:

› current offering. Forrester assessed each provider’s current offering using five criteria groups: physical switches, operating system, features, programmability, and monitoring and visibility. The programmability section contains the highest number of criteria and sheds light on the switching platform’s capability to support a wide range of automation and programming capabilities.

› Strategy. We assessed each vendor’s strategic positioning using four factors: product strategy, financial resources, company focus, and training. The product strategy section has the highest number of criteria and examines the company’s commitment to developing its products and supporting Forrester’s five virtual network infrastructure tenets.

› market presence. Our assessment of each vendor’s market presence included five factors: its installed base, current revenue amounts, revenue growth, employees, and partners. Revenue and growth rates are Forrester estimates, unless vendors publicly report revenue derived solely from the networking platforms we evaluated.




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evaluated Vendors And Inclusion criteria

Forrester included nine vendors in the assessment: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Arista Networks, Extreme Networks, Cisco Systems, Cumulus Networks, Dell, Huawei, Juniper Networks, and Pluribus Networks. Each of these vendors has (see Figure 4):

› Switching hardware and operating system for an enterprise data center. The vendor offers switching hardware and an operating system in one or more of the network segments: top of rack/leaf, distribution/spline, and/or core switches. The vendor must have one hardware offering delivered under the vendor’s own stock-keeping unit (SKU), not a partner’s part number.

› Programmable capabilities built into switching hardware. Forrester did not evaluate the hardware based on command-line interface (CLI) configuration but rather on programmability with higher coding capabilities. At a minimum, the switches must support XML for configuration.

› Switching hardware that can function as a standalone product. The switching hardware isn’t dependent on a controller or another hardware product to configure or manage it. The switch’s operating system must function as a standalone product and not be dependent on a controller from the vendor or a third party. For example, we didn’t include a solution such as Cisco’s ACI because it requires Cisco’s APIC controller and doesn’t allow options outside of that ACI ecosystem.

› Solutions that were available for purchase by october 22, 2017. Any feature or product releases after October 22, 2017, were not part of the product evaluation, but we considered them in the strategy portion of the evaluation.




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FIGUre 4 Evaluated Vendors: Product Information And Inclusion Criteria

Vendor

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

Arista Networks

Cisco Systems

Cumulus Networks

Dell

Extreme Networks

Huawei

Juniper Networks

Pluribus Networks

Hardware

OmniSwitch 6860, 6900, 9900, and 10K series switches

7000 series switches

Nexus 9000 series switches

Cumulus Express switches

S and Z series switches

Extreme (Brocade) SLX switches

Cloud Engine series switches

QFX series switches and OC1100 switch

Pluribus Freedom 9000 series switches

Operating system

AOS 8.4.1R02

EOS 4.19

NX-OS 7.2

Cumulus Linux 3.4

OS10 10.3

SLXOS 17.1

VRP V200R003

JunOS 16.1

Netvisor nvOS 2.6

Each vendor has:

Switching hardware and operating systems for an enterprise data center. The vendor offers switching hardware and an operating system in one or more of the network segments: top of rack/leaf; distribution/spine; and/or core switches. The vendor must have one hardware offering that has its product number.

Programmable capabilities built into switching hardware. Forrester did not evaluate the hardware based on CLI con�guration but rather on programmability with higher coding capabilities. At a minimum, the switches must support XML for con�guration.

Switching hardware that can function as a standalone product. The switching hardware is not dependent on a controller or another hardware product to con�gure or manage it. The switch’s operating system must function as a standalone product and not be dependent on a controller from the vendor or a third party.

Solutions that were available for purchase by October 22, 2017. Any feature or product releases after October 22, 2017, were not part of the product evaluation, but we considered them in the strategy portion of the evaluation.

Vendor inclusion criteria




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Vendor Profiles

We intend this evaluation of open, programmable data center hardware platforms for SDN to be a starting point only and encourage clients to view detailed product evaluations and adapt criteria weightings to fit their individual needs through the Forrester Wave™ Excel-based vendor comparison tool (see Figure 5 and see Figure 6). Click the link at the beginning of this report on Forrester.com to download the tool.




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FIGUre 5 Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking, Q1 2018

Challengers Contenders LeadersStrong

Performers

Strongercurrentoffering

Weakercurrentoffering

Weaker strategy Stronger strategy

Market presence*

*A gray marker indicates incomplete vendor participation.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

Arista Networks

Cisco SystemsCumulus Networks

Dell

Extreme Networks

Huawei

Juniper Networks

Pluribus Networks

Hardware Platforms For Software-De�ned NetworkingQ1 2018




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FIGUre 6 Forrester Wave™: Hardware Platforms For Software-Defined Networking Scorecard, Q1 2018

Alcate

l-Luc

ent E

nter

prise

Arista

Net

works

Cisco

Syste

ms

Cumulu

s Net

works

Dell Extre

me N

etwor

ks

Huawei

Junip

er N

etwor

ks

1.86

1.20

2.10

1.50

2.60

1.20

3.39

3.55

3.00

1.00

5.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

4.29

5.00

3.50

4.75

4.20

3.80

3.92

3.80

5.00

2.00

5.00

3.78

4.00

4.00

4.00

3.50

3.00

3.14

3.00

1.70

3.25

3.70

4.40

2.87

2.91

1.00

2.00

5.00

4.40

4.10

5.00

2.00

5.00

5.00

3.00

2.10

3.20

4.00

2.80

3.00

2.31

2.32

5.00

1.00

1.00

2.65

3.60

2.00

5.00

1.00

1.00

1.95

4.20

1.40

1.50

1.70

0.20

1.69

1.40

1.00

1.00

4.00

1.75

1.00

1.00

1.00

4.00

3.00

2.65

2.40

2.40

3.00

2.50

3.40

2.65

1.91

3.00

3.00

5.00

2.25

2.30

3.00

1.00

2.00

2.00

3.31

2.70

2.90

3.00

4.10

3.60

3.85

3.95

1.00

5.00

5.00

3.73

4.00

3.00

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.17

4.70

3.80

4.00

4.30

3.80

3.56

3.66

1.00

4.00

5.00

3.30

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

2.86

3.20

3.00

4.25

2.10

1.40

1.82

1.50

5.00

1.00

1.00

1.15

1.00

1.00

4.00

1.00

1.00

weight

ing

Forre

ster’s

50%

20%

20%

20%

30%

10%

50%

60%

13%

12%

15%

0%

50%

15%

5%

15%

15%

Pluribus

Net

works

Current offering

Physical switches

Operating system

Features

Programmability

Monitoring and visibility

Strategy

Product strategy

Corporate strategy

Evolution training

Financial resources to support strategy

Market presence

Installed base

Revenue

Revenue growth

Employees

Partners

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).




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Leaders

› Arista Networks. In 10 years, Arista Networks has grown into one of the largest suppliers of data center networking switches. The company’s growth is due to Arista’s Operating System (EOS) and extensive set of APIs and its focus on creating data center networking solutions. Besides enabling multiple paths to automation with its own networking hardware, Arista Networks allows customers to deploy EOS on third-party hardware, cloud platforms, and inside containers. Arista’s hardware platform consists of chassis (7300, 7320, and 7500 series) and fixed switches (70XX, 71XX, and 72XX series). Customers can choose to use third-party monitoring and management solutions or Arista’s offerings, such as CloudVision.

I&O professionals who are looking to start their automation journey or are in full swing with a deep programming skill set should look into Arista Networks.

› Juniper Networks. Juniper Networks is a company with a strong presence in the telecommunications industry and a product portfolio based on a single OS, JunOS, that extends from the data center to the campus edge. This FreeBSD-based operating system is disaggregated and runs on a virtualized Linux environment. Within the data center, customers use Juniper’s OCX and QFX series switches.10 The company has its own management solution for traditional switch management, and customers can choose Juniper’s Contrail or OpenContrail controllers for a central point of automation.

Customers that want to automate the entire network with a consistent OS, from the data center to the business edge, should look to Juniper Networks.

› Huawei. Huawei, the fastest-growing networking vendor in our evaluation, has two lines of switches for use in the data center, the Agile and CloudEngine switch series. Huawei positions the CloudEngine series switches as its main series, designed exclusively for the data center running Versatile Routing Platform version 8, Huawei’s Cloud Engine operating system. VRP v8 was built with VxWorks and is on the company’s routers. The company has one of the largest data networking portfolios and retains the largest networking market share within China, with a strong presence in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. Huawei continues to struggle to develop a foothold in the US market.

Customers looking for a vendor with wide global reach and a deep product portfolio should put Huawei on their shortlists.

Strong Performers

› cisco Systems. The largest networking vendor in the space offers wide-ranging networking and other infrastructure solutions across many industries. Cisco’s Nexus operating system (NX-OS) and enhanced Cisco NX-OS define its two types of data center networking solutions. NX-OS controls the Nexus 7000, 5000, 4000, 2000, and 1000V series switches. The Nexus 9000 series switches can support either NX-OS or enhanced NX-OS, the latter of which requires Cisco Systems’ own Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC).11 NX-OS has a rich set of APIs and features to




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support all aspects of data center needs. While the company has a strategy and plans for both OSes, most of its long-term investments center on its proprietary application-centric infrastructure (ACI) architecture.

Customers that want a single supplier of networking and adjacent technologies from one vendor should keep Cisco Systems on their shortlists.

› cumulus Networks. In 2015, Cumulus Networks entered the networking market with a Linux-based networking operating system that customers could load onto white box switches, such as Delta and Edge-Core. I&O professionals would be able to configure and manage the network using Linux commands similar to those they use with servers. In 2016, Cumulus Networks moved away from offering software only and started offering its own branded switching hardware, Cumulus Express switches, loaded with its operating system. The venture-capital-funded company focuses on serving data centers.

Enterprises that heavily base their data center and operations on Linux should put Cumulus Networks on their shortlists to harness efficiencies with a consistent development approach.

› extreme Networks. Extreme Networks offers enterprisewide networking solutions and recently acquired Brocade Communications Systems’ data center switches (SLX and VDX series) and OSes (Brocade Network OS and SLXOS).12 The company plans to position Brocade’s assets as its main data center solution instead of ExtremeOS and its current data center hardware, such as X670, X770, X870, and S series switches. The acquired Brocade data center assets come with heavy investments in the open development community, and Extreme Networks leads the charge in the development of the OpenDaylight controller. It will integrate its acquired Avaya, Brocade Communications Systems, and Zebra technologies into a unified enterprisewide network platform. Most of its revenue comes from North America, followed by Europe and Asia.

Customers looking to leverage an OpenDaylight platform should examine Extreme Networks’ SLX platform.

contenders

› Alcatel-Lucent enterprise. Spun off from the carrier side of the business, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise supplies networking hardware for the entire enterprise network. The company is based in France and owned by China Huaxin. The Linux-based Alcatel Operating System (AOS) controls the company’s switching hardware. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise positions its OmniSwitch 6860, 6900, 9900, and 10K series switches as both data center and campus solutions. To create a single businesswide fabric and enable automation, the company has invested heavily and made shortest path bridging (SPB) the main path for customers to adopt SDN, virtualization, service chaining, and automation. The company has a strong presence in Europe, followed by North America and Asia.

I&O organizations prioritizing automation across the business should look into Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and its implementation of SPB for automating policies fabricwide.




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› Pluribus Networks. Pluribus Networks entered the market and redefined what customers should get from a single hardware switch by introducing switching hardware that could host multiple instances of virtual switches, such as VMs on servers. For example, customers can break a single 24-port switch into multiple switches. Groups of virtual switches across multiple physical devices (Adaptive Cloud Fabric) can group together as a managed cluster to simplify management, like the hive concept that has appeared in wireless local area networks. While the company offers only a few hardware switches loaded with Pluribus Networks’ OS, Netvisor, customers can choose to load Netvisor onto a select set of ONIE switches. Most Pluribus customers operate within US, and the company received its D-round funding in 2015.

Pluribus Networks could be good fit for sophisticated I&O organizations that want to empower teams to leverage the network as necessary.

› Dell. Dell declined to participate in this Forrester Wave evaluation; our scoring is based on Forrester’s research. A mixture of internal development and Force10 assets makes up Dell’s businesswide network portfolio, from data center to campus to branch office. The data center networking products come with OS10, an unmodified Linux kernel built on the Debian distribution. While some of Dell’s older hardware comes with only OS10, the company has shifted, on its new hardware, to an open platform model. Customers can purchase the S-series switches — open networking (ON) designation — with Dell’s OS10 or another third-party OS, such as Big Switch Networks.

I&O professionals looking for the least amount of risk with software and hardware disaggregation and the most choices in hardware and OS support should review Dell’s product line.




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Supplemental material

online resource

The online version of Figure 5 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings. Click the link at the beginning of this report on Forrester.com to download the tool.

Data Sources Used In This Forrester Wave

Forrester used a combination of four data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each solution. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave, in part, using materials that they provided to us by February 26, 2018.

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› Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where necessary to gather details of vendor qualifications.

› Product manuals, configuration guides, and release notes. We asked vendors to provide links to configuration guides, manuals, and release notes to demonstrate that the products have the required features and capabilities.

› customer reference survey. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester conducted a survey with three of each vendor’s current customers.

› Forrester client feedback and insights. We used inquiry calls and client engagement information as another resource to set the direction of the survey and validate some of the vendor responses.

The Forrester Wave methodology

We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria for evaluation in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we narrow our final list. We choose these vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation. Vendors marked as incomplete participants met our defined inclusion criteria but declined to participate or contributed only partially to the evaluation.

After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria, we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires, demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and strategies.

We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave evaluation — and then score the vendors based on a clearly defined scale. We intend these default weightings to serve only as a starting point and encourage readers to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities and vendor strategies evolve. For more information on the methodology that every Forrester Wave follows, please visit The Forrester Wave™ Methodology Guide on our website.

Integrity Policy

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Survey methodology

The Forrester Data Global Business Technographics® Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017, was fielded in December 2016 and January 2017. This online survey included 3,535 respondents in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, the UK, and the US from companies with two or more employees.

Forrester’s Business Technographics ensures that the final survey population contains only those with significant involvement in the planning, funding, and purchasing of business and technology products and services. Research Now fielded this survey on behalf of Forrester. Survey respondent incentives include points redeemable for gift certificates.

Please note that the brand questions included in this survey should not be used to measure market share. The purpose of Forrester’s Business Technographics brand questions is to show usage of a brand by a specific target audience at one point in time.

endnotes1 For more information on the elements behind the SDDC, see the Forrester report “The Software-Defined Data Center

Comes Of Age.”

2 Source: “Networking,” Open Compute Project (http://www.opencompute.org/projects/networking/).

3 New networking terms like SDN, NFV, virtual network function (VNF), and service chaining have emerged with similar characteristics and interdependencies. Yet few I&O pros understand them, and this confusion has resulted in many making poor networking investments.

4 For more information on why the cloud giants shifted away from networking market leaders, see the Forrester report “Eight Toxic Networking Vendor Selection Philosophies.”

5 Source: “Verizon launches industry-leading large OpenStack NFV deployment,” Cision PR Newswire, April 25, 2016 (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/verizon-launches-industry-leading-large-openstack-nfv-deployment-300256567.html).

6 The implications of an enduring role for bare-metal servers ripple through the infrastructure management stack and affect the selection and implementation of management and automation tools. See the Forrester report “Brief: The Virtualization Conundrum — Don’t Plan On Getting Rid Of Your Physical Servers.”

7 Forrester categorizes the various strategies into four unique areas: 1) enhancing existing resources, with no intent to provide self-service access; 2) ensuring self-service access to development resources to avoid the use of public cloud; 3) enabling a greenfield development environment for new applications; and 4) transforming the entire environment while also providing self-service access, in the classic journey-to-cloud approach. See the Forrester report “Adoption Profile: Private Cloud in North America, Q1 2017.”

8 For a detailed explanation of how the infrastructure movement is already becoming a software development function, see the Forrester report “Lead The I&O Software Revolution With Infrastructure-As-Code.” I&O professionals should heed the advice in this report to embrace coding skills and thrive in their company’s technology-driven future.

9 For more information on the personas of rapid developers, coders, and DevOps, see the Forrester report “How And Why Customers Choose Public Cloud Platforms.”














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10 Uniquely, Juniper Networks’ OCX comes with JunOS, but customers can wipe it and load the switch with a third-party OS from other software vendors such as Big Switch or Cumulus Networks.

11 Customers looking to transition from NX-OS environment to ACI one will have to reconfigure the Nexus 9000 switches.

12 Source: “Extreme Networks Completes Acquisition of Brocade’s Data Center Networking Business,” Extreme Networks press release, October 30, 2017 (http://investor.extremenetworks.com/news-releases/news-release-details/extreme-networks-completes-acquisition-brocades-data-center?ReleaseID=1045915).

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