Aviz Networks analyzes Gartner's shift to SONiC in 2023 enterprise networking hype cycle
Gartner's 2023 Enterprise Networking Hype Cycle replaced the general category “Open Networking” with “SONiC,” reflecting its increased enterprise adoption and a revised maturity timeline moving from 5010 years to 25 years. This change indicates a shift for IT leaders seeking open-source operating systems with reduced vendor lock-in and improved Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Research overview
Gartner's updated cycle identifies SONiC as the open-networking technology attracting the most interest, signaling a change in market dynamics since earlier assessments. This update correlates with observed industry trends and customer preferences toward open-source solutions with broad vendor support.
Key findings from Aviz Networks' analysis
Aviz Networks attributes the shift to several factors, including the decline in meaningful differentiation among traditional “open networking” vendors whose proprietary disaggregated Network Operating Systems (NOS) failed to fully meet original promises of hardware-software freedom and standardized interfaces. Large incumbent vendors and public cloud providers gained market share by offering integrated solutions, eclipsing startups focused narrowly on routing protocols like Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
Customers encountered vendor lock-in despite purchasing disaggregated Network Optimization Suite (NOS) products because many NOS remained proprietary. Though hardware costs decreased due to disaggregation, operational expenses remained a limiting factor for overall savings. SONiC, developed by Microsoft, addresses these limitations by providing an open-source NOS supported by a growing community and multiple hardware vendors. It offers choice among white-box or incumbent switches, standardizes network operations, and reduces both capital and operational expenses by eliminating proprietary NOS licenses.
Operational impact for enterprises
Network teams prioritize features such as updated Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) capabilities, multi-cloud support, future-proofing without exclusive vendor dependence, cost predictability across refresh cycles, in-house innovation support, and standardized NOS APIs to reduce operational complexity. SONiC’s architecture supports these objectives by enabling vendor-neutral deployments and consistent behaviors across hardware options.
Technical deployment considerations
Organizations face questions regarding achieving incumbent-grade experience with SONiC, normalizing its behavior to maintain open-source purity, accurately calculating multi-vendor TCO, facilitating innovation without extensive internal engineering resources, obtaining enterprise support independent of hardware vendors, and integrating with diverse cloud environments.
Aviz Networks provides tools and services to address these concerns, including normalization processes, 24/7 support across device vendors, orchestration, and integration frameworks. This approach aims to accelerate SONiC adoption and enable enterprises to construct an open networking stack compatible with various ASICs, switches, NOS options, and cloud infrastructures.
This Blog Signals brief accurately reflects the content of the original vendor blog, summarizing key developments of SONiC's position in enterprise networking and its implications for technical decision-makers.