Apstra is an orchestrator that behaves much like Cisco DCNM/CNDFC or Arista CVP. The ultimate differentiator is that Apstra works well with all the major switch manufacturers. And in many cases, the Apstra on-box agent enhances the native abilities of the switch error and misconfiguration reporting via deduplication and with depth and granularity of telemetry. In addition, the on-box agent aids in scaling complex expansive networks. With Intent-Based Networking (IBN), throughout a network's design, deployment, and operational phases, Apstra maintains its user's blueprint by converting it to the vendor-specific instructions each switch needs without requiring the user to have even a low level of knowledge about a particular vendor's switch. The Apstra flow across these phases ensures a closed-loop, single source of truth system.

Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), now superseded by Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC), is Cisco's version of an EVPN fabric controller. DCNM, or NDFC, has three essential primary components. Spines that act like physical aggregation points for all of the leaves. Leaves provide endpoint aggregation and link to the spine. The last essential component is the controller, which in the case of DCNM is a single device or HA pair, and for NDFC, it is a Nexus Dashboard cluster with a loaded NDFC application. In most cases, DCNM or NDFC will utilize OSPF for the underlay and VXLAN EVPN with MP-BGP as the overlay on Nexus 9000 switches. These fabric controllers are easier to use than similar fabric technologies on smaller to medium size networks, as most variables work out of the box without needing to change them. To what is known in the industry as a point and click your way to happiness.

VMware NSX Datacenter(NSX-T) platform allows the creation of secure virtual networks on top of your current physical network and virtual server infrastructure. SDN abstracts the underlying infrastructure of your network and programs separate virtual networks using the software. Using the NSX-T manager to create the NSX infrastructure, we prepare the Compute and Edge hosts participating in NSX. The compute hosts connect to the DC fabric, typically a CLOS or Spine/Leaf architecture. The Edge is connected to the DC fabric and external switches to provide public and private routing to WAN and Internet. Using the software, NSX can recreate entire physical networks, from the layer two switching, complex BGP routing, and FWs load balancers VPNs. This is possible by creating layer 3 Virtual Tunnel Endpoints (VTEPs) that use the Geneve encapsulation protocol to create an overlay in the compute and Edge cluster hosts. This overlay can then build layers two and three segments to connect our Virtual NSX routing and switch infrastructure. This Geneve Encapsulated Overlay also allows us to create a Physical to Virtual (P/V) point where we can either encapsulate the virtual networks and send them across the layer three underlays or decapsulate to connect to devices outside NSX.

There are several universal architectures in the Arista design portfolio. The Enterprise Universal Cloud Network can be used in the data center and in the Cognitive Campus, and the Enterprise Anycloud Network expands beyond the data center. All of these designs deliver the Arista Unified AnyCloud Architecture offering unified orchestration, management and telemetry with CloudVision. Arista's guiding principles are Universal(Common architectures from small to huge), Simple(a single operating system for all platforms and hardware), Open(standards-based features and functions), Programable(Easy to use APIs and automation), and Visible(Full state Telemetry and flow information) The key to these guiding design principles is the use of the Arista EOS architecture for its hardware and software-based devices. EOS is based on a Linux kernel, standard and fully open. EOS uses agent processes, that use a Publish/Subscribe model to populate the NetDB on each device which contains all device states. NetDB can then be used by Aristas CloudVision products to offer full-state telemetry and flow information for the entire Universal Architecture. Because Arista is using a single binary for all hardware and software-based devices Arista can implement hardware abstraction. Unlike some other manufacturers, Arista uses the latest Merchant Silicon and when coupled with the standard open EOS kernel allows very fast development cycles, fewer bugs, and faster adoption by customers since it is the same EOS.