Case Study: SWITCH achieves an agile, simple, reliable data center with Cumulus Networks (Cumulus Linux routing on the host)

SWITCH Builds Agile, Simple, Reliable Data Center with Cumulus Linux and Routing on the Host

SWITCH, the Swiss non‑profit that provides IT services to universities, needed an agile, simple and cost‑effective data center to launch its SWITCHengines cloud IaaS. The team required a solution that integrated cleanly with OpenStack Neutron and Ceph, supported IPv4/IPv6, avoided vendor lock‑in, and removed the operational complexity and cost of MLAG and Spanning Tree while still providing redundant connectivity to VXLAN VTEPs for multi‑tenant workloads.

They deployed a Layer‑3 Clos fabric with fixed‑form switches running Cumulus Linux and put routing on the hosts using Cumulus Quagga (OSPF unnumbered). This eliminated MLAG/STP, enabled ECMP redundancy to /32 VTEP routes, simplified operations (Puppet for unified Linux configuration), sped troubleshooting and upgrades, and delivered an affordable, scalable, resilient network that meets SWITCH’s SLAs.

SWITCH

Saverio Proto

Cloud Operator