Recently, Tolly Group, an international authoritative evaluation organization, completed the testing of the Application Driven Data Center (AD-DC) solution from H3C. According to the test report, the H3C AD-DC solution has significant advantages in providing full lifecycle automation management, intelligent analysis and operation and maintenance (O&M) based on AI (artificial intelligence) and big data, comprehensive security, resilient and reliable network architecture, and open programmability, thus providing a strong driving force for the construction of next-generation data centers.
The H3C AD-DC solution, based on the Cloud & AI Native architecture, enables automated device configuration and network services based on a SDN control component (SeerEngine-DC), and delivers comprehensive updates on the data center status sensing through an analysis component (SeerAnalyzer-DC), while combining AI and big data capabilities to accurately and quickly locate and identify faults. It features H3C cloud data center series switches to create a high-bandwidth fabric network with lower latency and zero packet loss, helping customers build intelligent, on-demand next-generation data centers that meet the demand for rapid business delivery in the cloud computing era.
Under the rigorous testing by Tolly’s engineers, the H3C AC-DC solution has demonstrated excellent functional advantages in several areas:
Full lifecycle automation management
The AD-DC solution provides end-to-end full lifecycle data center network automation from planning, design, deployment, simulation and assurance with AD-DC. Through physical network provisioning automation, logical network provisioning automation and service launching automation, and faulty device replacement automation, H3C AD-DC solution can improve O&M efficiency by reducing O&M workload and device replacement time.
Intelligent analysis and O&M based on AI and big data
The H3C AD-DC solution achieves high-precision (millisecond-level) data collection, data analysis of VMs, and real-time presentation of faults using the H3C AD-DC with gRPC, Telemetry Stream, ERSPAN, INT (In-Band Telemetry) and other technologies. This helps users to conduct global monitoring of the network, visual presentation of tenant networks, and business model inference. This is enhanced by accurate fault location, risk prediction, root cause analysis and fault closure to perceive, predict, diagnose and optimize (fix) the data center network, shortening troubleshooting process from hours to minutes.
Comprehensive security
The H3C AD-DC solution supports on-demand scheduling of security capability to provide full protection of security within and outside the tenant. H3C AD-DC also supports “network + security” network-wide linkage and collaborative defense, helping administrators move from manual O&M to intelligent O&M. Besides, based on the micro-segmentation function implemented by switch hardware table entries, the H3C AD-DC solution can provide host-grained network isolation for data center networks.
Resilient and reliable network architecture
As digital transformation continues to advance, data centers also need to be well prepared for possible future surges in data processing activities. With a unified software platform and network architecture, the H3C AD-DC Anywhere solution provides users with SDN networks that can cover edge data centers, micro and small data centers and even hyper-scale data centers through AD-DC Lite, Remote-Leaf, Multi-Fabric and Multi-DC networking models. It also supports flexible traffic egress models such as local egress, primary and secondary egress and dual-active egress to meet the networking requirements of enterprise hybrid IT and distributed multi-cloud environments.
Open programmability
The SDN technology-based data center enables administrators to customize the data center more flexibly at the control level, and the H3C SDN controller SeerEngine is the core of the programmable data center. H3C AD-DC provides intelligent, secure and reliable information network architectures. It is changing the way networks are deployed and operated, providing richer and more flexible features to help enterprises adapt to network trends.
H3C AD-DC adopts the open standard RESTful API and Java API in the north direction, and it can integrate and interoperates with organizations’ own management and orchestration automation systems. AD-DC supports interoperating with the OpenStack cloud platform through Neutron. It can also be integrated with the Ansible automation platform to help automate customer work order systems.
In addition, through the cross-domain and cross-technology convergence deployment function, the H3C AD-DC solution supports control and analysis convergence deployment, as well as the convergence deployment of campus, data center and WAN domains, providing customers with a unified management, O&M platform and a unified portal for hybrid IT and multi-cloud network environment to effectively reduce CAPEX and OPEX costs. Meanwhile, the H3C AD-DC solution provides three-level reliability assurance at container level, cluster node level and cluster disaster recovery, and supports zero packet loss in primary and secondary switching of aggregated links through DNRI, truly realizing carrier-grade high reliability of data center network.
With the emergence of cloud computing, big data and the mobile web, traffic coming into and exiting from data centers is increasing with more and more businesses starting to rely on such services. The data center network must respond all the more quickly. H3C AD-DC solutions have long served a wide range of industries, while proactively responding to the expanding network demands in digital transformation through continuous iterations, with the aim of providing customers with intelligently converged, safe and reliable, advanced, mature, open and inclusive full-stack data center network solutions.
Looking ahead, H3C also plans to continue deepen its Cloud & AI Native strategy, while optimizing and upgrading its AD-DC solutions to assist more industry customers achieve digital transformation.
