Broadcom introduces standards-based fabric, Cisco integration with VCF

Broadcom has announced standards-based network updates to help customers build and extend modern private clouds, as well as a Cisco partnership designed to simplify operations and improve interoperability in those environments.

Broadcom is expanding its open hardware certification program to increase participation and streamlining its certification process to help customers adopt next-generation CPU, GPU, and accelerator technologies. The company is also announcing support for edge-optimized nodes for rugged, compact servers in industrial, defense, retail, and other remote site applications, according to a statement.

The integration with Cisco and its Nexus platform will deliver a unified fabric and improved networking capabilities for Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) for customers using Cisco in their networking environments.

“Broadcom is taking a lead here in terms of unifying all of these various networking fabrics so they can truly incorporate using standards-based technology, which is BGP and EVPN, which is the market,” said Prashanth Shenoy, CMO and vice president of marketing for the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom, during a press briefing. “We truly believe that it will drastically simplify networking operations in the modern, private cloud world, and this unified standards-based fabric approach will also enhance interoperability between the application environment and the underlying network infrastructure, providing that cloud-like simplicity that our customers really, really require.”

Broadcom explained its strategy to use Ethernet VPN (EVPN) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) networking to enhance interoperability between application environments and the network. The strategy is based on the standards EVPN and BGP: EVPN extends Layer 2 Ethernet connectivity across a Layer 3 network, such as MPLS or IP, which integrates different control planes and simplifies network management; and BGP which enables capabilities such as network redundancy and traffic management.

Broadcom said its standards approach will help enterprises overcome the challenges associated with adopting AI at scale, which can intensify the requirements for performance, security, and resiliency. “Doing that, we truly believe that it will drastically simplify networking operations in the modern, private cloud world, and this unified standards-based fabric approach will also enhance interoperability between the application environment and the underlying network infrastructure, providing that cloud-like simplicity that our customers really, really require,” Shenoy said.

The partnership aligns VCF with Cisco’s Nexus One fabric, which implements a standard-based VXLAN EVPN control and data planes. The integration will create “more ingrained visibility for the network admin so that they can rapidly deploy and scale the networking environment for the modern, private cloud platform,” according to Shenoy. Broadcom says customers will benefit from virtual private cloud (VPC) protection, consistent network operations, routing, and visibility across VCF Networking domains and third-party networking solutions.

Cisco recently began shipping an integrated Nexus Dashboard that will let customers see and manage its Application Centric Infrastructure and Nexus NX-OS VXLAN EVPN fabrics with unified data, control, and policy enforcement. The dashboard will allow customers to consolidate and control AI, LAN, SAN, and Cisco IP Fabric for Media (IPFM) systems from a single pane of glass. 

“Cisco’s foundational work in VXLAN EVPN, backed by the industry’s most comprehensive IETF standards authorship, reflects our long-standing commitment to open networking,” said Murali Gandluru, vice president of data center networking at Cisco, in a statement. “This collaboration with Broadcom demonstrates our shared commitment to open standards—giving our customers architectural flexibility and choice as they connect, protect, and scale both AI and traditional, business-critical workloads.”