When Cisco released the Nexus 1000V Switch for VMware vSphere, an essentials edition was offered under a freemium model, while a paid edition provided more security, scale and other features. The core value proposition here is clear. However, the same can not be said of the Nexus 1000V Switch for Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), an open source virtual switching solution.

In an interview for theCUBE at VMworld, Cisco Director of Product Management Balaji Sivasubramanian, addressed this speculation and revealed that the KVM solution is not about just selling a switch. He pointed out that Cisco isn’t selling the KVM solution as a stand-alone vSwitch and explained that it is purpose built for OpenStack and fully integrated into its overall solutions. On its freemium model, Cisco offers virtualization-aware networking infrastructure, integration with the OpenStack Neutron service and services architecture through support for vPath.

Although all those features are free, there isn’t a network virtualization solution. On the paid advanced edition, Sivasubramanian said that what Cisco offers is the ability to support 6,000 Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) segments in a single Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) controller. Customers can build multiple virtual machine (VM) clusters, each with 250 servers, and then have the VXLAN go between those clusters. With this, customers can essentially build a large overlay solution. Sivasubramanian added that this is what customers are paying for, not necessarily just for a vSwitch.