The announcement of the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch and the Cisco Nexus 1000V at VMworld last September was pretty exciting as network things go. These new virtual switches put a bunch of new features and capabilities at the disposal of network and server admins in addition to simplifying deployment, configuration and monitoring.
But what do these switches actually do? What features do they provide? Do any of the switches provide ACLs? SPAN? Can you create Private VLANs? The list goes on, as do the questions from customers who are now trying to plan for these new switches in their environments.
So, to address the rising frenzy of questions, my opposite numbers at Cisco and I recently collaborated on a document detailing the features of these two switches and compared them against the current ESX 3.5 vSwitch and forthcoming Standard Switch.
