Pluribus Networks has joined Dell’s Open Networking initiative. As a consequence, its Open Netvisor Linux will be available with Dell’s range of Open Networking switches – which are being positioned as the perfect foundation for software-defined networks (SDN).

Dell has already made similar deals with Cumulus Networks, Big Switch Networks and Japanese start-up Midokura.

“Dell wants to fundamentally change the nature of networking by focusing on openness and the disaggregation of hardware and software,” said Tom Burns, VP and GM of Dell Networking and Converged Infrastructure.

“With this announcement, we are expanding the Dell open networking ecosystem, showing how multiple operating systems can now offer our customers choices that complement our open hardware solutions and are flexible enough to adapt to our customers’ requirements.”

Making friends

Pluribus Networks was founded in 2010 deliver server economics and programmability to top of the rack switching. The name has no connection to the Pluribus packet switch, developed for ARPANET in 1972.

The company’s flagship product is Netvisor – a scalable, distributed SDN controller based on the Linux kernel. It features application-aware fabric, embedded analytics capabilities and offers complete interoperability with the existing Layer 2 and IP/BGP infrastructure.

Under the terms of the partnership, Dell customers will be able to have Netvisor pre-installed on Open Networking switches, for example the S6000-ON and S4048-ON.

“Cloud providers need security, monitoring and virtualization built in at the architectural level to enable them to compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other hyperscale cloud providers, and that is exactly what we are delivering with Pluribus Open Netvisor Linux running on Dell’s line of OCP-compliant open networking hardware,” said Kumar Srikantan, president and CEO of Pluribus.

Pricing and details for Pluribus Open Netvisor Linux on Open Networking switches will be available in the third quarter of 2015.