Welcome to this lesson on the background of SONiC. Before we dive into the architecture and components in detail, we will tell you about the characteristics and history of SONiC.

What is SONiC at all? The acronym stands for Software for Open Networking in the Cloud. SONiC is a network operating system based on Linux. It is an open source project, and as such, is free to be used by everyone. One of the main features of SONiC is its device independence, and therefore, it is supported by many platform and ASIC vendors. Its main focus, based on its legacy, is the support for data center use cases, but we see more and more campus features emerging in some editions. SONiC also features a containerized architecture, which contributes to its robustness and extensibility. While there is an open and free community version of SONiC, we also see more and more enterprise-grade versions that might also have their advantages. To learn more about SONiC as a project, you can visit the SONiC landing page at sonicfoundation.dev.

Before we learn about the benefits of SONiC, let’s have a look at its history. SONiC was developed by Microsoft in 2016 to power its massive Azure cloud infrastructure. Soon after, it was open sourced through the Open Compute Project. In 2022, stewardship transitioned to the Linux Foundation, making SONiC a fully community-led initiative. In today’s SONiC community, we will find more than 850 contributors who come from cloud providers as well as from OEMs, integrators, chip vendors, and other companies. The community also established a wealth of tools and documentation around SONiC to extend the SONiC ecosystem.

Now, what are the benefits of SONiC, especially if you compare it to legacy network operating systems? SONiC is open and you will not experience vendor lock-in. SONiC is supported by many ASIC vendors like Broadcom, Marvell, or Intel, as well as many platform vendors like Edgecore, Dell, Celestica, and UfiSpace. This gives you a broad palette of options to choose your hardware from, and you could change your equipment while still keeping your familiar software ecosystem.

SONiC also features a modular architecture, unlike many of the monolithic legacy network operating systems. SONiC is built on containers, which supports its robust operation and also allows it to easily extend its functionality by adding new containers.

Finally, SONiC is scalable and flexible. You can run it on many types of networks, from campus to a hyperscale data center. It includes ample options to automate operation, so manual configuration can be restricted to a minimum.

SONiC started as a community-driven open source project. The community version is powerful and flexible. But when it comes to deploying SONiC in production networks, especially at scale, many organizations look for a more robust and secure alternative, including support with contractually guaranteed SLAs. That’s where enterprise-grade SONiC editions come into play.

In general, enterprise distributions bring production-grade maturity to SONiC, like proactive security patching and management of CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), SLA-backed support, an optimized implementation of the ASIC support, verified hardware compatibility, as well as access to full documentation, lifecycle tools, and customer access, like a support portal.

This training is based on the Enterprise SONiC edition by Broadcom.