Maybe April Fool's Day is the wrong day for this, but in all seriousness...

Today is my last day at Network World and IDG, where I’ve spent the past 25 years of a 30-year career in technology journalism. Indeed, today is technically my last day in technology journalism – I’m starting a new job in networking market research and analysis at 451 Research on Monday.

I think this might be the first story I wrote for Network World. My first story ever in technology journalism was a small, inside page filler for Electronic News on an Alcatel central office switch.

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Brocade is buying automation start-up StackStorm in an effort boost its DevOps offerings and capabilities, StackStorm announced on its website.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

StackStorm’s software is an event-driven automation platform designed to integrate components of an IT environment. It’s used for auto-remediation, including response to security events and easing complex deployments.

It also integrates with chat platforms such as Slack and HipChat for launching and tracking workflows via chat messages.

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After much success in data center switching, Arista Networks is now trying its hand at routing.

The company this week is targeting the incumbency of Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks in Internet routers with a new platform designed to bring the scale, simplicity and workload mobility of data center switching to cloud routing. The Arista 7500R is based on Broadcom’s “Jericho” silicon enhanced with routing code in Arista’s EOS operating system.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Arista violated 3 Cisco patents: ITC+

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Linux network operating system vendor Cumulus Networks this week named a new CEO while its current CEO and co-founder takes over as CTO.

Josh Leslie, formerly Cumulus vice president of sales, takes over for founder JR Rivers. Rivers becomes CTO, and says transition was his idea with board approval.

Current CTO and co-founder Nolan Leake will still be involved in the company’s technical direction, working with Rivers, Rivers said.

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SANTA CLARA -- SDN can’t be done on an island, according to Nuage Networks.

If an enterprise is doing a software-defined datacenter, it must also do a software-defined WAN to ensure consistent policy across the IT infrastructure, said Sunil Khandekar, Nuage CEO and co-founder.

“You can’t view SDDC and SD WAN as two separate puzzles,” Khandekar said during a presentation at the Open Networking Summit here. “If you do you’ve created islands of automation.”

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise is developing an SD-WAN offering for service providers to host for their enterprise customers. The SD-WAN is based on HPE’s ContexNet technology obtained from last year’s acquisition of ConteXtream.

ContexNet is an OpenDaylight-based SDN controller for service providers implementing NFV infrastructures for virtualized network functions. HPE will ostensibly be competing with Versa Networks and other companies targeting service providers for VNF-based SD-WANs.

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SANTA CLARA – In a convincing example of the viability of open source networking, cloud provider DreamHost saved 70% in capital and 40% in operational costs by replacing VMware’s NSX SDN with open source alternatives.

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SANTA CLARA – SDN’s impact is profoundly changing the way users operate their networks.

Databases and distributed systems can now participate in networking, and workloads can be segmented for scale, participants at the 2016 Open Networking Summit said here this week. Network management is simplified, and application interactions are more intuitive and network-aware.

“Networking is way more than connectivity,” said Pere Monclus, CTO and co-founder of PLUMgrid, speaking on a panel at the conference.

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It’s ecosystem partnership week. And data center stalwart Mellanox, SDN start-up Plexxi and Cisco partner vArmour have all delivered.

Mellanox buddied up with Cumulus Networks to add Cumulus Linux NOS to its new Spectrum 10/25, 40/50, and 100 Gbps Ethernet switches. Mellanox itself has made multiple contributions of 10/25, 40/50, & 100G Ethernet switch and Open Compute Platform (OCP) adapter designs.

Cumulus Linux has been chosen by several hardware and software vendors as a NOS option when opening up switches to support multiple NOSes. In addition to Cumulus Linux, the Mellanox Spectrum switches can now run OpenSwitch, Metaswitch IP Routing, and Mellanox MLNX-OS through the OCP Switch Abstraction Interface and Linux Switchdev.

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Juniper Networks has allied with Chinese IT stalwart Lenovo to build converged, hyperconverged, and hyperscale data center infrastructure products for the enterprise and webscale markets.

The non-exclusive arrangement comes as the hyperconvergence market – tight integration of compute, networking and storage into an overall software-defined IT fabric – is reaching warp speed. Cisco entered the market last week via an alliance with start-up Springpath; HPE disclosed plans for an offering this month; and leading start-ups Nutanix and SimpliVity are expanding their product lines, ecosystems and addressable markets.

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Cisco will soon unveil a container “stack” for developers of cloud applications and services, and expects to have one for enterprises over time as well.

The Cloud Native Platform will emerge in April, according to Yvette Kanouff, Cisco senior vice president and general manager, Cloud Solutions. It will be delivered as a SaaS model with continuous integration/continuous delivery, and include containerized automated infrastructure as its base, policy-based management and orchestration as a middle layer, and analytics, development tools, and initial hybrid cloud applications in its framework.

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Cisco this week acquired privately-held Synata, a developer of search technology for collaboration tools.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Cisco’s Greatest Hits, 2015+

Synata’s software will help users of Cisco’s Spark business collaboration service search rooms and content within the service, Cisco says. Spark is a cloud-based service that enables users to message, meet, or call.

Synata’s software allows users to search both on-premise and cloud-based applications simultaneously from one platform, Cisco says. It will also work within Spark’s encryption capabilities so users can collaborate and search with privacy and control of their data, the company says.

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In an effort to save time, customers are increasingly awarding business straight to Cisco without going through months-long “bake-offs” to evaluate solutions from various vendors, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said this week during the company’s reseller partner conference. These customers would rather focus on company business operations than spend as long as three months evaluating trials of different vendor proposals to fulfill their IT requirements, he says.

And it’s becoming a trend, Robbins says.

“What we see is an increasing desire by the IT organizations to spend more time on strategic issues inside of the company relative to what technology does to the future of their business and business models,” Robbins said during a Q&A with reporters at the Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego. “They have tremendous confidence in our portfolio and what we bring, and we do see customers trying to move more aggressively in this fashion.

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 SAN DIEGO – Cisco this week introduced a software-driven architecture designed to extend policy throughout an enterprise wired and wireless network, from branch to edge to core.

Cisco’s Digital Network Architecture (DNA) is a blueprint for building an enterprise network with virtualization, automation, analytics, cloud service management and programmability for ease of operation and management. It is delivered through Cisco ONE software licensing on a variety of Cisco platforms, and is anchored by the company’s APIC-Enterprise Module SDN controller, which has been slow to emerge from development and trials.

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