Top Alternative to Enterprise SONiC | IP Infusion OcNOS

Looking into a commercially supported Network Operating System (NOS) with features that are tested, validated and deployment ready? Enterprise SONiC may look like a good starting point, but for many customers the path to production can be complex and costly.

Different enterprise SONiC distributions have diverging feature sets and varying customer support coverage. For the enterprise SONiC distributions provided by the Ethernet switch vendors, hardware flexibility would be limited to the switches from the same vendor—effectively locking you into a single vendor.

OcNOS is the top alternative to enterprise SONiC for data center operators who want the benefits of open networking without building the NOS themselves. It offers a mature, open networking NOS that’s easy to deploy, rich in features, built to scale, including multi hardware platform vendor options – making open networking more accessible than ever. Unlike enterprise SONiC distributions, which are provided by hardware vendors to complement their main products, platform independent OcNOS is the flagship product of IP Infusion, a ground-up networking software company.

 

Experience with OcNOS vs SONiC

 

OcNOS Experience
Purpose-built for Target Use Cases
Purpose-built and validated for the target use cases. The same OCNOS runs on both data center fabric switches with EVPN-VxLAN support and data center edge routers with rich support for carrier services and BGP peering.
Software Ownership and Accountability
IPI owns the software with full accountability and full control of its roadmap and plan of vision.
Simple Perpetual Licensing
Pay once upfront and retain full ownership forever without recurring subscription fees. License is portable to comparable HW from different vendors.
Commercial-Grade Support
Access real engineers with SLAs, comprehensive docs, lifecycle updates, and no third-party redirection.
Wide Whitebox and Optics Ecosystem and Flexibility
Extensive compatibility matrix with certified platforms from numerous ODMs and validated optical transceivers for broad deployment options.
Enterprise SONiC Experience
Active Community Contribution but Diverse Focus
SONiC mainline is full of customized features for various proprietary projects. Enterprise SONiC requires effort just to harden the mainline for the target use case, reducing the capacity to develop the features needed for the target use cases.
Open Source Projects, No Clear Line of Accountability
Complex release management as upstreaming to and re-basing from mainline involve project priorities, resolving disputes and time consuming code reviews and QA activities. Difficult to influence mainline roadmap for individual customers.
Costly Subscription Based Support
Although SONiC is free open source SW, enterprise SONiC comes with costly subscription based support as the revenue source for the enterprise SONiC provider.
Fragmented Support
Unless it is the hardware vendor that provides support to own enterprise SONiC, the frontline support vendor would be a 3rd party which may not always be timely or comprehensive.
Limited HW Flexibility
Enterprise SONiC distribution only works on the HW platforms from the same hardware vendor that provides the enterprise SONiC distribution.

OcNOS Use Cases at Glance

Once you’ve past installation and integration, what your NOS can do becomes critical. Here’s how OcNOS supports real-world networks.

OcNOS Data Center
DC-CLOS
  • L2
  • L3
Multi-tenant DC
  • Underlay + EVPN Overlay
Lossless fabric for storage and AI/ML
  • ECN
  • PFC
  • ETS
  • Dynamic load balancing
OcNOS Service Provider
Access Network
  • Fixed Wireless Access
  • PON Access
  • Cable Access
  • Mobile Access
  • Ethernet Access
Cell Site Router
  • Grand Master Clock
  • Boundary Clock
  • Transparent Clock
Aggregation Router
  • Provider Edge Router
  • Provider Router
  • BGP Peering
  • Data Center Interconnect
  • Open ZR+ IPoDWDM

Bottom Line

Use OcNOS if you:

Require a proven, stable, and mature solution that is pre-validated across a wide range of certified whitebox platforms and optics.

Value direct vendor support with guaranteed SLAs, predictable release roadmap, and comprehensive documentation.

Need carrier-grade features like mature EVPN-VXLAN, comprehensive MPLS, and Segment Routing capabilities ready for immediate production deployment with full support.

Why Our Customers Selected OcNOS over SONiC

Scott Data

Scott Data Deploys Network Disaggregation with IP Infusion OcNOS Data Center
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Madeo

Madeo’s Open Networking Transition For Data Center
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Prosoluce

Prosoluce Chooses Open Networking For Core Network Upgrade
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Get More Comparison Insights in Our Blogs

 
 

Contact Us to See How OcNOS Can Simplify and Strengthen Your Network

 

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