Turning Open-Source Into Enterprise-Ready Networking

At Larch Networks, we believe open networking should be practical, reliable, and ready for real-world deployments. We align with the lead that software should be universal, disaggregated, help users avoid vendor lock and ready for future. SONiC has all these features, however a lot needs to be done to fill the gaps where it lacks.

We want to share what it takes to get SONiC from the lab into production — hardening it, closing critical feature gaps, and ensuring that real life customers can adopt SONiC to their needs.

From Community Code to Productized SONiC

The turning point came when a major global brand approached us to deliver Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches with SONiC to compete as a boxed product solution at green datacenters.
We have to combine hardware design, SAI integration, and SONiC community hardening to create a boxed product, fully accepted and now deployed in evaluation stages across regional offices.
This process confirmed our vision: open-source networking can power enterprise-grade deployments, if engineered with discipline.

What Makes a Product “Product”?

For SONiC to succeed outside hyperscale clouds, it needs more than just error-free code that delivers. It needs:
– Clear definitions of what’s supported and how.
– Comprehensive documentation that matches real functionality, not just roadmaps.
– Thorough testing of features, scalability, and limitations.
– Transparent communication about what works and what doesn’t.
In short: define, document, test, and communicate. That’s how open-source becomes enterprise-grade.

Hardening SONiC: Our Approach

We’ve invested heavily in hardening SONiC, ensuring it can handle the demands of production environments.

– Hardware validation — full load testing, stress checks, stability analysis.
– Security improvements — vulnerability scans (CVEs) for the base system, customer-specific compliance.
– SONiC testing — community test suites enhanced with traffic generators and automated frameworks.
– SONiC augmentation – add the functionality required by the customer

The result is a combination of hardware and SONiC system that is not only open, but you can rely upon.

Closing the Feature Gaps

Community SONiC is powerful but incomplete. We’ve addressed critical gaps, including:

– Protocol support: VRRP, TACACS+/Radius fixes, MC-LAG, MSTP/RSTP alignment.
– VxLAN enhancements: improved point-to-point tunneling and configuration handling.
– Multicast support: IGMP/MLD snooping, PIM integration, IP multicast orchestration.
– Documentation overhaul: clear guides, working examples, removal of legacy clutter.
– Scalability validation: VLANs, routing tables, ACLs, MAC/DMA limits tested and documented.

Each improvement makes SONiC more robust, more predictable, and more usable for enterprises.
Each improvement required either merging code from pull requests or writing it from scratch not only in SONiC, but in SAI as well. Then — rigorously testing it and fixing many of the issues that could arise in such a complex system.

Platform Support & Optimizations

SONiC must work with the hardware it runs on. We had to take care about:

– LEDs and diagnostics (system, fan, locator, port activity).
– SERDES fine tuning for cables, optics, and breakout ports.
– Kernel stability fixes for Linux 6.1 issues.
– Boot-time optimization: by replacing Supervisord with the S6 process manager, we cut boot time on by nearly 25%.
These optimizations make SONiC more efficient and deployment-ready.

Documentation: The Often-Overlooked Part

Enterprise adoption requires confidence—and confidence comes from documentation. Our SONiC deliverables had to include:
– User and configuration guides
– Command references
– Hardware specifications
– Quick start guides
– Release notes and feature lists

With this, customers should know what works, how to configure it, and what limitations to expect.

Conclusion

Productizing SONiC is about more than packaging code. It’s about engineering trust.

Through rigorous testing, hardening, protocol and platform enhancements and documentation, we hope we made SONiC a deployable solution for enterprise data centers.

As open networking continues to reshape the industry, we’re proud to help organizations adopt SONiC with confidence-bridging community innovation and enterprise reliability.

Interested in SONiC-powered solutions or custom hardware? Get in touch with our team to learn how we can help.