MENOG25 – SONiC: Disaggregated, Open, Multi-Vendor Network Operating System
At MENOG25 (menog.org), Ahmed Abdelsalam of Cisco Systems presented “SONiC: Disaggregated, Open, Multi-Vendor Network Operating System.”
Data centers continue to expand rapidly, creating urgent demand for flexible, scalable, and open networking solutions. In some cases, traditional vertically integrated network operating systems restrict innovation, lock operators into specific hardware, and slow feature evolution.
SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud) solves these challenges by decoupling the networking software stack from underlying hardware. Built on the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), SONiC standardizes how the NOS interacts with diverse ASICs. Its northbound APIs give operators a unified way to manage devices across multiple vendors, delivering true multi-vendor interoperability. The SONiC community now includes 36 members—major network vendors, merchant silicon vendors, operators, and open-source contributors—who collaborate to drive production-grade innovation.
In this session, Ahmed will walk through SONiC’s architecture, contrast it with traditional NOS designs, and show how community-driven development accelerates new capabilities. Using SRv6 as an example feature jointly developed by ecosystem partners, he will showcase how SONiC’s open, community-driven approach accelerates innovation and expands possibilities for next-generation cloud networking.
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