Network visibility and software testing company Ixia announced its new Network Visibility Operating System (NVOS). It's a software version of Ixia’s network packet broker product. NVOS allows Ixia’s capabilities to run on open networking switches such as those from Edgecore Networks.

NVOS transforms open switches into packet brokers — whether the switches are a third-party's or Ixia's — for greater visibility in web scale and software-defined data centers.

Network packet brokers aggregate, filter, and load-balance network packet data to deliver it to security and performance management tools.

Edgecore Networks has been collaborating with Ixia to enable Ixia’s NVOS on Edgecore’s open networking switches. Jeff Catlin, Edgecore's VP of technology, said in a statement, “New approaches for pervasive network visibility in web scale and software-defined data centers are enabling cloud service providers, telecom service providers and enterprises to gain deeper insights into network services. Edgecore is pleased to collaborate with Ixia to enable ... [a] visibility platform for these modern, disaggregated cloud and telecom infrastructures.”

NVOS can be downloaded and installed on any certified open networking switches.

Taran Singh, Ixia’s director of product management, said IT professionals looking at software-defined data center (SDDC) networking are looking for flexibility where a network switch can do a variety of functions. “The NVOS is really our answer to the network disaggregation in the context of getting network visibility,” said Singh. “The value they get of course is that the same switch they used to just do the production networks switching can now be repurposed to be a full-featured packet broker."