Author: Jian Guan, IT Innovation Record
"Users say they want optical solutions, and we don't have them." When the sales staff from the front line of the market to the product research and development department, the internal Ruijie network had an aftershock "earthquake".
In front of the general trend of light into copper retreat, Ruijie network seems to be half a beat slow this time. With the standard answer represented by PON floating around in the market, it is a dilemma whether to follow or not to follow. A few months later, when the aether all-light scheme rose from the dark horizon, the twists and turns of the past also become the landscape.
Bottom-up demand mining
The initial discussions around the response plan were filled with a variety of voices. Some suggestions on the basis of PON, using the accumulated technology to do some upgrading; Some advocates in engineering efforts, so that users get a different experience. It is better to bow down than to talk on paper. In a bottom-up way, problems are found in users' application scenarios, real needs are sorted out, and then the most suitable product development route is chosen. Ruijie network, which "does not follow", has been adhering to the idea.
Getting all the product managers together to visit more than 100 customers over the course of a month is the first step in the overall action plan. Ruijie network has a "speed recovery" mechanism, which summarizes the feedback information from three dimensions: how deep the problem affects the user, namely the intensity; How many users have a problem is breadth; The number of daily occurrences of problems, refers to the frequency.
Product managers of Ruijie Network understand customer needs on the spot
Why should users switch to an all-optical scheme? How do you actually feel after adopting PON scheme? These are the two core questions in the interview of product managers. By analyzing the collected information in combination with its intensity, breadth and frequency, the accuracy of some judgments can be verified and new situations that have never been thought of can be found.
It is not to be avoided that the traditional Ethernet has obviously encountered problems that cannot be solved, such as slow speed improvement, limited transmission distance, high cost of transformation, too much space to occupy, and limited point expansion. The voice of users is in line with the cognition of Ruijie network, but the demand for upgrading is fierce slightly more than expected.
The product manager also learned through in-depth contact that many users were fed up with the original network and tried to use the all-light solution on the market to solve the urgent problem, but "the old hate did not get rid of, and add a new worry".
First of all, a network covers both Ethernet and PON protocols, which greatly increases the difficulty of operation and maintenance and the cost of learning. Once the business goes wrong, the response speed of regional service cannot keep up, which will adversely affect the user experience and the performance appraisal of related personnel.
Second, PON uses the passive beam splitting and bandwidth sharing mode. If there are many terminal nodes and heavy lateral traffic demand, it is prone to be not enough for all. The common practical training or computer classroom in the campus, after 1:8 or 1:16 after 100 Mbit/s bandwidth, simply can not meet the normal teaching needs.
Another concern is that the failure rate of ONUs is much higher than that of enterprise-class switches, and the cause of failure is unclear, from sudden lightning strikes to long working hours. For group users, the potential risks brought by large-scale use are difficult to estimate, and the consequences of frequent failures cannot be borne.
Cut into big pain points and fit small needs
Users' pain points are like beacons that illuminate the path of product development and progress: avoid two operation and maintenance systems for one network, preserve the bandwidth exclusive mode and the advantages of stable switch operation, but replace the copper wire in the network architecture with optical fiber.
It was against this backdrop that the Minimalist Ethernet All-Light Solution was launched in March. At the internal pre-sales training meeting in the early stage of the program promotion, Ruijie network sales staff raised such a question: "Our program seems to be the floor of the weak current switch to the indoor, and then the middle link from network cable to optical cable, is not too simple?"
What seems like a simple change is actually a fundamental shift. The new optical fiber + Ethernet +SDN technology is adopted to sink the switch into classrooms, wards, hotels and office rooms. When terminals are expanded or bandwidths are upgraded, you only need to replace devices without adjusting links. This cleverly combines the advantages of Ethernet and POL to provide enterprise-level users with high bandwidth, low latency, agile, flexible, and simplified O&M network load.
Switchboard entrance is not a simple move. If you want to enter the office, teaching, rest and other scenes smoothly, you must go through multiple tests:
One is to become more compact, the integration of electronic components has a high requirement;
Second, reduce the noise, reduce the interference to teaching, wards and other special environment, Ruijie according to the national standard of sleep noise launched fan-free products;
Three is the heat must pass, summer stuffy in the weak electric box is not afraid. The internal components of Ruijie switch have a high temperature resistance limit of 108 ° C. Even in extreme situations such as fire, fire-retardant materials and safety measures such as turning off POE power supply can also mitigate risks.
RG-SF2910 series extremely simple optical switch
While accurately cutting into the big pain points, at the same time to meet the small needs of users in every detail, is the unique feature of very simple light program. "Finally wait for your plan", this is a lot of schools, hospitals, enterprise parks and other industries users heartfelt sigh, but also the highest praise for Ruijie network product research and development.
Of course, any plan to change the status quo could create entirely new challenges. The original switch is placed in the floor weak current room, can be unified operation and maintenance; After the switch is installed, the number of devices increases significantly, and the potential faults of optical modules cannot be ignored. Therefore, the problems faced by operation and maintenance management increase exponentially.
Intelligent operation and maintenance is the way to crack Ruijie network, its real landing is inseparable from the user's actual application scenario close and insight. The very simple solution provides visual management of the whole network process. Operation and maintenance personnel do not need to master the technical principles. They can complete the recovery of network faults by looking at the link, checking the equipment, and changing the equipment with zero configuration.
Disruptive innovation that goes right to the core
If the ultra-simple optical generation mainly solves the access layer problems of fiber replacement and switch entry, then the disruptive innovation of convergence and core layer really makes Ruijie become the leader of the technology route of Taiji simple all-optical.
Redefinition of building switch, core switch, server, software solutions groundbreaking to achieve "three in one", is the very simple light II transformation tool.
Authoritative research data shows that nearly 30% of enterprise users plan to start optical network switching plans in the next year, and this proportion is expected to exceed 50% by 2024. The main disadvantage factors that hinder the optical copper is the lack of budget and management ability.
This is highly consistent with the conclusion reached by Ruijie network's R & D and sales team after the whole life cycle tracking of users. Many small and medium-sized users have limited budgets, server and software investment accounts for more than 25%, the implementation of all optical network transformation is often difficult. At the same time, the time cost of deploying and commissioning the server is not low. "Sometimes it takes one day to install the underlying operating system and configure the virtual machine", and the subsequent operation and maintenance pressure can be imagined.
After several rounds of demand research and brainstorming, a brand new idea gradually emerged: removing the server from the overall scheme and "filling" the software to the core switch can not only help users free up budget space, protect the investment, but also simplify the installation process and reduce the difficulty of operation and maintenance. Why not?
Although the direction is clear, achieving expectations on the product side is not easy. The business of building switch bears great pressure, so it is necessary to develop more powerful line card to improve the reliability of operation. The energy saving and consumption reduction of "big" is also crucial. It is urgent to slim down heavy functions such as network topology in operation and maintenance software and make customized designs according to different scenarios. The heat dissipation of active devices is more of a system engineering. Besides improving natural heat dissipation by adding copper cables and adjusting device layout, it is also necessary to optimize heat dissipation channels by external forces such as fans.
Less than half a year after the release of the first generation product, the RG-S78C F-series core switch has been successfully launched to meet the needs of campus networks and data centers. You do not need to purchase additional servers. Core switches are preconfigured with management software and service templates before delivery. Rapid deployment shortens the service provisioning period and implements automatic operation and maintenance management of optical networks.
In order to improve the landing process of the second generation of very simple light solutions, Ruijie network will continue to improve in product design, wiring construction, business online and other aspects. For example, the power cord with right Angle bend can be used to eliminate space squeeze and security risks, and the brightness of switch lights in the ward can be adjusted to improve user experience. These micro-innovations in in-depth scenes complement each other with disruptive innovations in product technology, and together outline a brilliant future.
Minimalism is an art school that flourished after World War II. The essence of minimalism is to open the image space of works and let viewers participate in the construction of works. The very simple solution seems to have been true, from the active or passive participation of users, and Ruijie network together to shape the new paradigm of R&D innovation. Cross-border echo, how wonderful!
