Arista Warrior, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Network Designs

Arista changed the world of networking in more ways than just groundbreaking new products. Seeing a change in the needs of large-scale data centers, Arista promoted the use of some new network design scenarios that have become the standard for many of the Cloud Titans. Those designs have become so successful that they’ve been adopted by many smaller networks, as well. Why? Mostly because the old designs were laden with complexity as a result of their introduction decades ago when there was no way to avoid such things. Modern networks are much more powerful and, as a result, can be much simpler, though in my experience there is no end to the complexity that a determined network engineer can add.

Remember that these are design principles and they might not apply to every situation. Still, using these designs as a starting point can help immensely when designing new layouts from scratch. Oh, and you’ll never see me use terms like greenfield unless it’s ironically, because I consider that business-speak, and if there’s one thing that will make me cross-eyed, it’s a nice dose of business-speak. I’d like to spitball a greenfield design so we can shift the paradigm in order to leverage our core competencies in a forward-thinking way that’s a win-win solution without boiling the ocean. We’ll all need to give 110% as we take it to the next level so we can maximize impact while penetrating multiple demographics. It is what it is.

George Orwell would be proud. ...