Despite vendor pledges to support existing or developing industry standards, users are expected to deploy single-vendor data centre and cloud switching fabrics from their primary suppliers.

Standards such as Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (TRILL), Shortest Path Bridging and Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation will be embraced by those vendors looking to dent Cisco's dominance in data centre switching. The standards support will soothe customers looking to avoid vendor lock-in, but it's unlikely IT shops will mix and match multivendor switches within and between data centres.

Source: Computer World