Juniper Networks seems to have big plans for its OpenContrail SDN controller: it would like to see it act as a kind of “meta-controller” for multiple cloud and data centre controllers.

It's quietly pushed up the first code of what is, for now, dubbed “project Ukai” at Github.

The alpha-level code has two top-line aims: to run global network resource management that gets “translated to local resources” in data centres; and to manage global identifiers like route targets and security group IDs.

The aim is to make it easier for a network operator to drive multi-region cloud environments.

An example is a content distribution network: the operator needs to have the same virtual network configuration, network policy, and firewall rules everywhere. Ukai is designed to provide automation for that.

Juniper's documentation for OpenContrail Global Controller says without the automation layer, it's burdensome for a sysadmin to connect to servers and VMs in multiple regions one at a time.

The effort aims to create a global controller that can support 3,000 read requests a second, 1,000 requests per second for configuration update requests, and handle up to 50 data centres.

The current version of Ukai runs on OpenStack releases later than Liberty; Ubuntu 14.04 or higher, and OpenContrail 3.0 or higher. ®