Our customers are operating private cloud deployments, running Linux on network switches, and on their SoftGate nodes.
Linux made its place to the data center networking. We need to spread this knowledge further to make Linux Networking mainstream.
eBPF is awesome. Container networking inside the server is the best place for eBPF networking.
For data center border networking (border router, full routing table, Layer-4 load balancing, NAT, VPN) DPDK enables us to push the boundaries of Linux Networking, squeezing 100Gbps / 30Mpps out of one server. It's performance comparable with Cisco ASR and Juniper MX specialized hardware.
The Linux router + Linux switches, wrapped into Netris automatic NetOps software enables users to operate their on-prem network with cloud-like experience. Plugging in their favorite tools like Kubernetes, Terraform, etc.
Personally, recently I've been lamenting about the lack of popular Linux distro for network operating system (NOS) [1]. I really wish we have similar eco-system for Linux networking as for server and mobile (if we can count Android as Linux). Next time If anyone ask me why we want that I'll just point to this article, thanks Alex. The SDN trends in networking in particular NFV/NVF really make Linux and networking a match made in heaven.
Just wondering is SmartNIC necessary for the typical private cloud linux router set up? How about eBPF enabled routing to bypass the kernel, is it good enough performance wise for small to medium data center?
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29959234