Leaf & Spine Switching
Leaf and Spine Data Center Switches
Leaf-spine replaced the three-tier campus design in the data center because east-west traffic broke the old assumption that most packets were heading north. Every leaf connects to every spine, every node is the same number of hops from every other node, and capacity grows by adding spines rather than by re-architecting.
The 19 switches here are the ones that role actually calls for: Cisco Nexus 9000 leaf and leaf-and-spine models, Arista 7050 and 7060 spines plus the deep-buffer 7280 line, Juniper QFX5120 in 25GbE, 10GBase-T and 32x100GbE forms, Dell PowerSwitch S4100 open-networking leaves, and the NVIDIA Spectrum SN2410, SN3700 and SN4600 AI-fabric switches at up to 25.6 Tbps.
Ports are the constraint that decides the design, not the brand — node count, uplink speed and how much oversubscription you can live with between leaf and spine. We work that out first and then name the switches, which is usually a shorter list than people expect.
19 configurations below · quotes returned within 48 business hours · purchase orders accepted
Leaf and Spine Data Center Switches we configure and supply
Every system below is quoted to your workload — accelerator count, CPU, memory, storage and fabric are specified together rather than sold as a fixed SKU.
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93180YC-FX 48 x 25GbE SFP28 + 6 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf and Spine Switch
Data center leaf and spine switching for VXLAN fabrics and ACI deployments.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9336C-FX2 36 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf and Spine Switch
Data center leaf and spine switching for VXLAN fabrics and ACI deployments.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93108TC-FX 48 x 10GBase-T + 6 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf Switch
Leaf switching for VXLAN and ACI fabrics across 10G, 25G and 100G access.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93240YC-FX2 48 x 25GbE SFP28 + 12 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf Switch
Leaf switching for VXLAN and ACI fabrics across 10G, 25G and 100G access.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9364C 64 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf Switch
Leaf switching for VXLAN and ACI fabrics across 10G, 25G and 100G access.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Arista 7280SR2-48YC6 48 x 25GbE SFP28 + 6 x 100GbE QSFP28 Deep Buffer Spine and Edge Switch
Deep-buffer switching for spine and WAN edge, where microbursts would otherwise drop.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Arista 7280CR3-32P4 32 x 100GbE QSFP28 + 4 x 400GbE QSFP-DD Deep Buffer Spine and Edge Switch
Deep-buffer switching for spine and WAN edge, where microbursts would otherwise drop.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Arista 7060CX-32S 32 x 100GbE QSFP28 Layer 3 Data Center Spine Switch
Low-latency spine switching for AI cluster and leaf-spine fabrics.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Arista 7060DX4-32 32 x 400GbE QSFP-DD Layer 3 Data Center Spine Switch
Low-latency spine switching for AI cluster and leaf-spine fabrics.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Arista 7050SX3-96YC8 96 x 25GbE SFP28 + 8 x 100GbE QSFP28 Layer 3 Data Center Spine Switch
Low-latency spine switching for AI cluster and leaf-spine fabrics.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Juniper Networks QFX5120-48Y 48 x 25GbE SFP28 + 8 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf and Spine Switch
Leaf and spine switching for EVPN-VXLAN fabrics under Junos.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Juniper Networks QFX5120-32C 32 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf and Spine Switch
Leaf and spine switching for EVPN-VXLAN fabrics under Junos.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Juniper Networks QFX5120-48T 48 x 10GBase-T + 6 x 100GbE QSFP28 Data Center Leaf and Spine Switch
Leaf and spine switching for EVPN-VXLAN fabrics under Junos.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Dell EMC PowerSwitch S4128F-ON 28 x 10GbE SFP+ + 2 x 100GbE QSFP28 Open Networking Leaf Switch
10G leaf switching for server access on open networking.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Dell EMC PowerSwitch S4148F-ON 48 x 10GbE SFP+ + 4 x 100GbE QSFP28 Open Networking Leaf Switch
10G leaf switching for server access on open networking.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
Dell EMC PowerSwitch S4148T-ON 48 x 10GBase-T + 4 x 100GbE QSFP28 Open Networking Leaf Switch
10G leaf switching for server access on open networking.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
NVIDIA Spectrum SN2410 48x25GbE 48 x 25GbE SFP28 + 8 x 100GbE QSFP28 AI Fabric Ethernet Switch
The Ethernet side of a GPU cluster fabric, matched to ConnectX and BlueField.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
NVIDIA Spectrum SN3700 32x200GbE 32 x 200GbE QSFP56 AI Fabric Ethernet Switch
The Ethernet side of a GPU cluster fabric, matched to ConnectX and BlueField.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
NVIDIA Spectrum SN4600 64x200GbE 64 x 200GbE QSFP56 AI Fabric Ethernet Switch
The Ethernet side of a GPU cluster fabric, matched to ConnectX and BlueField.
- Authorized supply
- Compatibility checked
- Volume pricing
What we need to quote accurately
A configuration quote takes minutes when these are known and days of back-and-forth when they are not. You do not need all of them to start — send what you have.
- The workload: model sizes, training or inference, and expected concurrency
- Node count, and whether this is a single system or a scaling cluster
- Rack power and cooling available per rack, and inlet temperature
- Existing estate — the vendor and management tooling you already run
- Network fabric: InfiniBand, Ethernet, and the speed you are standardised on
- Timeline, and whether the budget is approved or being built
How we quote
- 1
Send the requirement
An email, a bill of materials, or a rough description of the workload. All three work.
- 2
We validate the configuration
Accelerator, chassis, fabric, power and cooling checked against each other before anything is priced.
- 3
Itemised quote within 48 hours
Line-by-line pricing, current availability and lead time, with warranty terms stated.
leaf spine switch — buyer questions
How many leaf and spine switches will we need?
It falls out of three numbers: how many nodes, at what port speed, and what oversubscription ratio you will accept between leaf and spine. A non-blocking design needs as much uplink bandwidth out of each leaf as it presents downward, which is why a 48x25GbE leaf typically carries 6 to 8 x 100GbE uplinks. Send us the node count and port speed and we will lay out the topology before quoting a single switch.
Do we need deep-buffer switches?
They earn their cost where traffic is bursty and incast-heavy — many nodes answering one request at once, which is exactly what distributed storage and some training patterns do. The Arista 7280 line here is the deep-buffer option. For steady east-west flows a shallow-buffer spine is cheaper and performs the same. We will tell you which pattern your workload looks like rather than up-selling the buffer.
100GbE or 200GbE at the spine?
100GbE QSFP28 spines — the Arista 7060CX-32S, Cisco Nexus 9364C, Juniper QFX5120-32C — remain the volume choice and pair with the 100G adapters most fleets already run. Step to 200GbE QSFP56 with the NVIDIA Spectrum SN3700 (32 x 200GbE, 12.8 Tbps) or SN4600 (64 x 200GbE, 25.6 Tbps) when the leaf uplinks would otherwise be the bottleneck, typically on a GPU fabric. The decision is made at the leaf, not the spine.
Do these ship with optics included?
No — the cages ship empty on every switch listed. Optics and DAC are separate lines and have to be coded for the switch platform, so a Cisco-coded module will not come up in an Arista port. Send the switch model with the order and we will quote the optics coded correctly, with the cable lengths worked out from your rack elevation.
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