HP today is launching a new line of branded white box switches — brite boxes, as Gartner calls them — to begin shipping next month. The goal is to provide Web scale organizations and service providers more control and flexibility in their data center networks.

The release gives customers more options for an open networking landscape, as well as disaggregated choices, says Mark Carroll, HP's VP and CTO. "We are adding to the adoption of open solutions and open industry standards as opposed to the proprietary solutions out there."

The announcement has HP entering a joint venture with switch ODM Accton Technology, a longtime partner. Carroll says the decision to go beyond the existing partnership and into a joint venture was made based on HP's confidence in Accton's hardware.

Cumulus Networks will also be part of the brite box offering, providing its Cumulus Linux OS. Carroll says that while HP may look to partner with others, Cumulus Networks was the perfect starting point thanks to its traction in the market and involvement across several verticals.

Enterprise customers have been voicing a desire to work with system IT companies like HP, so customer demand and market drivers spearheaded the partnership, says Reza Malekzadeh, Cumulus Networks' VP of business. He also notes that in order to achieve an open approach to networking, there must be an easily accessible model.

"Cumulus Networks sees this as a strategic partnership that not only further validates the open networking model, but also provides the reach, solutions, and ecosystem that the customer needs," he writes in an email to SDxCentral.

HP's brite box announcement enables customers to have a direct sales model and provides them with a direct purchasing model as well, giving them the power to tailor their purchases to specific needs. The brite box switches will also be backed by worldwide local support and services through HP Technology Services.

"HP is invested and a true believer in SDN adoption," Carroll says. "Brite box is another way we are expanding and investing in the complete portfolio."

The HP-branded brite box switches will be available in late March, starting with a two switches that enable 10-/40-Gb/s spine and 10-Gb/s leaf data center deployments. Later this year, HP will expand the line to include 25-/50-/100-Gb/s switches for higher performance Web scale data centers, as well as 1-Gb/s switches for more specific customer needs.

 Among switch vendors, Juniper is also trying out the brite box model, as it announced in December.