Avaya is collaborating with Wind River to take a significant step toward data center simplification through the development of “hands-free” vSwitch network services configuration. This capability, which the companies expect to submit to the Open Source domain, can deliver fault-free, end-to-end automation today as the foundation for software-defined networking (SDN) in the future. Avaya also plans to build this capability into its Fabric Connect technology, which delivers the only unified end-to-end virtualized network capability in the market today.

The ability to eliminate manual administration and configuration of network switches means companies can quickly provision new services and greatly reduce the potential for costly errors and delays. Today, when a physical or virtual switch comes online, IT staff must manually type command lines to configure the new network nodes.

Now, through the joint effort with Wind River, automatic service configuration code is embedded into Open Virtual Switches. After a vSwitch is activated, the code automatically configures it into a unique network-wide service, completely removing manual provisioning from everyday service delivery. By way of comparison using physical switch configuration as a proxy, a study completed by Miercom¹ in 2011 found that a large data center with 800 top of rack switches could save nearly 12,000 hours of configuration time annually.

Earlier this year, Avaya introduced this capability in Fabric Connect, the company’s network-wide virtualization technology. A finalist for Best of Interop 2014, Fabric Connect automatically configures services for users and devices that plug into or log on to the network.

Avaya and Wind River plan to submit this innovation to the openvswitch.org initiative. Avaya recently demonstrated this solution at VMworld 2014 and has already introduced the auto-attach technology to the IETF for consideration as a standard.