Pica8 announced Threshold, the industry's first-ever white box- and brite box-based replacement architecture capable of displacing an entire legacy enterprise network infrastructure. Running on open switching hardware, such as Dell EMC's family of open access and campus switches, Threshold includes a powerful automation framework at 1/200th the cost of legacy vendors-for a typical 100-switch deployment-as well as open networking alternatives to access switch stacks, campus chassis switches, and more.

Threshold creates a complete network out of white box or brite box switches, by offering a centralized point of management and higher availability than legacy solutions for management, control and data planes. In addition, Threshold features automated deployment, configuration, management, monitoring, alerting and system logs to simplify network administration.

"With Threshold, Pica8 has removed virtually all of the legacy stacking issues network administrators have faced," stated Bob Laliberte, Practice Director and Senior Analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. "The combination of flexibility, reliability, and scalability, as well as being offered at a fraction of the price of legacy equipment, ensures that Threshold will be viewed as a significant value."

Pica8 designed Threshold with five open-network industry firsts. Threshold's AmpCon Enterprise Automation Framework comprises the first automation solution explicitly designed for enterprise data networks that run on open switches. For example, its GUI includes a Quick Start Mode that allows even an intern to turn on and configure a thousand or more remote switches without any possibility of human error due to the solution's network automation templates that are customized into the GUI for each network. AmpCon also provides full ongoing network lifecycle management capabilities, including license maintenance, configurable security controls, and so on.

"Pica8's Threshold is ideal for enterprises that have multiple locations including Fortune 1000 companies, state and local governments and educational institutions," said Brian Henderson, Director, Dell EMC Networking & Solutions. "Its ease of use makes open switches and network technology more accessible to customers. With its automation framework, no programming expertise is required to turn on and configure any number of remote switches, allowing administrators to easily deploy Dell EMC open networks of any size."

PicaPilotPro comprises a new set of features that have been integrated into Pica8's PICOS Linux-based NOS, including three network industry firsts: open networking port-aggregation "alternatives" that allow for switch stack replacement, IDF solution replacement and chassis switch replacement. PicaPilotPro is included with PICOS at no additional cost. It is controlled by an easy-to-use web interface and allows organizations to deploy complete white box network alternatives to switch stacks, IDFs and chassis switches for the first time.

Finally, as part of Threshold, PICOS now comes with Native Packet Steering Functionality, the first of its kind, which leverages Pica8's integrated Open vSwitch and unique dual control plane - L2/L3 + OpenFlow/SDN - CrossFlow functionality. This allows PICOS to redirect switch data flows directly to analytics or security platforms - without touching switch access control lists (ACLs) - drop suspicious data flows, as well as filter and/or replicate flows.

"Threshold actually elevates the entire enterprise open networking industry across a new ‘threshold,' moving it from being a point-solution provider of white box and brite box open switches to being a provider of entire open networks, and breaking the legacy network vendor's economic model in the process," said Jeff Paine, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Pica8. "With Threshold, Pica8 gives enterprises a modern take on networking that will carry these organizations well into the future, and with incentives like $10 per switch automation, ROI begins quickly."

Pricing and Availability

The AmpCon automation framework, which is fully comparable to legacy vendor automation offerings, is being offered at a special introductory price of $10-per-switch-per-year. It does not require a dedicated server and it can be deployed either on-premises or in the cloud (at no additional cost). The AmpCon license also comes with no limitations on the number of connected devices nor on the number of users in the network. All the other features of Threshold mentioned above are now included in the base price of Pica8's PICOS Enterprise Edition NOS software.