Dell has added Pluribus Networks to its lineup of disaggregation partners.

Dell will now offer Pluribus’ Open Netvisor Linux operating system on its S6000-ON and S-4048-ON 10G/40G switches. This is an addition to the Cumulus Networks, Big Switch Networks, Midokura and VMware packages Dell already supports on those switches.

Dell’s strategy is to make its merchant silicon-based hardware appealing to cloud providers who usually opt for bare metal switches running a variety of operating systems that they can easily replace or expand for scale or other requirements.

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Others pursuing this strategy, or a variation of it, include HP and Juniper Networks. Juniper is offering its own JUNOS operating system on an Open Compute Project-compliant switch under its brand.

Citing data from Gartner, Dell says combined white-box and branded white-box – “brite-box” -- switches will constitute more than 10% of global data center port shipments by 2018, up from under 6% in the first half of 2014.

Pricing and packaging details for Pluribus Open Netvisor Linux on Dell’s switches will be available in the third quarter.