Cumulus worked on what is known as the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), which is a pivotal piece of the Open Compute networking project. With ONIE, a device manufacturer can produce a switch that will boot to an installer. That installer will then enable the user to select the operating system they want to install on the switch.
“It’s kind of like a mix of BIOS, PXE, and gPXE, all rolled up together,” Rivers said.