Scenario-based × disruptive innovation: polishing the minimalist "light" with users

"Users asked for an optical network solution, but we don't have one." When the sales staff passed the message from the market to the product R&D department, an "earthquake" occurred within Ruijie Networks that was difficult to resolve.

In the face of the general trend of optical fiber replacing copper, Ruijie Networks seems to be a step behind. The market is full of "standard answers" represented by PON, and it is really a dilemma whether to follow or not. A few months later, when the Ethernet all-optical solution slowly rose from the dark horizon, the previous entanglements and twists and turns also turned into scenery.

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Bottom-up demand discovery

In the initial discussion about the solution, many opinions emerged. Some suggested to use the accumulated technology to improve the PON, while others advocated to work hard on engineering technology to give users a different experience. It is better to do it than to talk about it on paper. Ruijie Networks has always adhered to the idea of ​​"not being a follower" to discover problems from users' application scenarios, sort out real needs, and then choose the most suitable product development route in a bottom-up manner.

Gathering all product managers and visiting more than 100 users in one month is the first step of the entire action plan. Ruijie Networks has a "speed restoration" mechanism that summarizes feedback information from three dimensions: how deeply the problem affects users, that is, intensity; how many users have problems, that is, breadth; and how many times the problem occurs on a daily basis, that is, frequency.

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Ruijie Networks' product managers understand customer needs on the spot

Why do users want to switch to an all-optical solution? What is the actual experience after adopting the PON solution? These are the two most core questions in product manager interviews. Analyzing the collected information in terms of intensity, breadth, and frequency can not only verify the accuracy of some judgments, but also discover new situations that have never been thought of.

It cannot be avoided that traditional Ethernet has obviously encountered unsolvable problems, such as slowing speed increase, limited transmission distance, high transformation cost, excessive space occupation, and limited expansion of points, etc. The voice of users is consistent with Ruijie Network's cognition, but the demand for upgrading is slightly stronger than expected.

The product manager also learned through in-depth contacts that many users were fed up with the original network and tried to adopt all-optical solutions on the market to solve their urgent problems, but "old hatreds have not been eliminated, and new worries have been added."

First, a network covers two architecture protocols, Ethernet and PON, which greatly increases the difficulty of operation and maintenance and the learning cost. Once a problem occurs in the business, the response speed of regional services cannot keep up, which will have an adverse impact on the user experience and the performance evaluation of relevant personnel.

Secondly, PON adopts a passive splitting and bandwidth sharing mode. If there are many terminal nodes and large horizontal traffic demand, it is easy to fall into the dilemma of too many people and too little porridge. The 100M bandwidth of common training or computer classrooms on campus cannot meet normal teaching needs after 1:8 or 1:16 splitting.

Another hidden danger is that the failure rate of ONU is much higher than that of enterprise-level switches, and the cause of the error is not clear. Sudden lightning strikes or long-term operation may cause problems. For group users, the potential risks brought by large-scale use are difficult to predict, and the consequences of frequent failures are unaffordable.

Addressing major pain points and meeting minor needs

Users' pain points are like a guiding light, illuminating the path for advancing product research and development: avoiding two operation and maintenance systems for one network, retaining the advantages of the exclusive bandwidth model and stable operation of switches, but replacing the copper wires in the network architecture with optical fibers.

The "Simplified Ethernet All-Optical Solution" was born in March this year in this context. At an internal pre-sales training meeting at the early stage of the solution promotion, Ruijie Networks' sales staff raised the following question: "Our solution seems to be to move the switches in the weak-current rooms on the floors indoors and then replace the intermediate links from network cables to optical cables. Isn't it too simple?"

The seemingly simple change actually contains a fundamental transformation. Minimalist Optics uses the new fiber-to-the-room + Ethernet + SDN technology to sink switches into classrooms, wards, hotels, office rooms and other indoor spaces; bypassing the limitations of splitters, it can achieve 1:1 10G bandwidth into the room. When expanding terminals or upgrading bandwidth, it only needs to replace the equipment without adjusting the link - this cleverly combines the advantages of Ethernet and POL, and can provide enterprise-level users with high-bandwidth, low-latency, agile and flexible network bearer with simplified operation and maintenance.

The switch is not a simple move. If you want to successfully enter the office, teaching, rest and other scenes, you must go through multiple tests:

First, it needs to become more compact, which places high demands on the integration of electronic components;

The second is to reduce noise and reduce interference to special environments such as teaching and wards. Ruijie has launched fanless products in accordance with the national standard for sleeping noise.

Third, heat dissipation must be good, so you don’t have to worry about being stuck in a weak-current box in the summer. The high-temperature limit of Ruijie switch internal components is 108 degrees Celsius. Even in extreme situations such as fire, flame-retardant materials and safety measures such as shutting down POE power supply can mitigate risks.

RG-SF2910 Series Simplified Optical Switch

While accurately addressing the major pain points, the minimalist optical solution also meets the user's small needs in every detail. "Finally I have waited for your solution," this is the sincere sigh of users from different industries such as schools, hospitals, and enterprise parks, and it is also the highest praise for Ruijie Networks' product development.

Of course, any solution to change the status quo may bring about new challenges. Originally, switches were placed in the weak-current room on the floor, which could be operated and maintained in a unified manner. After the switches were placed in the room, the number of devices increased significantly, and the potential failure points of the optical modules could not be ignored. The difficulties faced by operation and maintenance management increased exponentially.

Intelligent operation and maintenance is Ruijie Network's solution, and its real implementation is inseparable from close understanding and insight into users' actual application scenarios. The simplified optical solution provides visual management of the entire network and the entire process. Operation and maintenance personnel do not need to master technical principles. They can complete network failure recovery by checking links, checking devices, and replacing devices with zero configuration. They don't even need to remember the corresponding ports. The whole process can be completed within 10 minutes.

Disruptive innovation that goes straight to the core

If the first generation of simplified optical technology mainly solves the access layer problems of optical fiber replacement and switch installation, then the disruptive innovation of the aggregation and core layers truly makes Ruijie the leader in the Ethernet simplified all-optical technology route.

Redefining building switches and pioneering the "three-in-one" integration of core switches, servers, and software solutions is the revolutionary tool of the minimalist optical second generation.

Authoritative research data shows that nearly 30% of enterprise users plan to start optical network replacement plans in the next year, and this proportion is expected to exceed 50% by 2024. The main unfavorable factors hindering the replacement of copper with optical fiber are insufficient budget and lack of management capabilities.

This is highly consistent with the conclusions drawn by Ruijie Networks' R&D and sales teams after tracking users throughout their life cycle. Many small and medium-sized users have limited budgets, and server and software investment usually accounts for more than 25%, which often makes it difficult to implement all-optical network transformation. At the same time, the time cost of deploying and debugging servers is not low. "It sometimes takes a day to install the underlying operating system and configure the virtual machine." The subsequent operation and maintenance pressure can be imagined.

After several rounds of demand research and brainstorming, a new idea gradually emerged: removing the server from the overall solution and "installing" the software into the core switch can not only help users free up budget space and protect existing investments, but also simplify the installation process and reduce the difficulty of operation and maintenance. Why not do it?

Although the direction is clear, it is not easy to achieve the expectations on the product side. The business load of building switches is huge, and it is necessary to develop line cards with stronger performance to improve the reliability of operation; energy saving and consumption reduction of "big guys" is also crucial, and it is urgent to "slim down" the heavier functions such as network topology in the operation and maintenance software, and make customized designs according to different scenarios; the heat dissipation of active equipment is a systematic project. While improving natural heat dissipation by adding copper cables and adjusting device layout, it is also necessary to optimize the channels for heat dissipation by external forces such as fans.

Less than half a year after the first generation of products was released, the RG-S78C F series core switches that have been refined and meet the needs of campus networks and data centers have been successfully launched. Users no longer need to purchase additional servers. The core switches are pre-installed with management software and service templates. The extremely fast deployment can shorten the service launch cycle and realize automatic operation and maintenance management of optical networks.

To accelerate the implementation of the simplified optical second-generation solution, Ruijie Networks will continue to improve product design, cabling construction, and service launch. For example, using right-angle power cords to resolve space compression and safety risks, and adjusting the brightness of switch indicator lights in wards to improve user experience. These micro-innovations that go deep into scenarios complement the disruptive innovation of product technology and together outline a brilliant future.

Minimalism is an art genre that flourished after World War II. Its essence lies in opening up the image space of the work and allowing the viewer to participate in the construction of the work. The minimalist optical solution seems to have inherited the true teachings, which comes from the active or passive participation of users. Together with Ruijie Networks, it has shaped a new paradigm of R&D innovation. Cross-border resonance is wonderful!