The spine-and-leaf model is a network architecture for high scalability and efficient data center networking. It's best suited for modern, large-scale data centers. Each leaf switch connects directly to every spine switch in this design, forming a non-blocking, fully redundant fabric. This architecture provides multiple parallel paths for data traffic, reducing latency and congestion.
Benefits of the spine-and-leaf model include easy scalability as new leaf switches can be added without disrupting the existing network, improved performance due to the non-blocking nature of the design, and high availability with redundant paths for fault tolerance. It's ideal for data centers handling cloud computing, virtualization, and big data workloads, ensuring robust and efficient network operations.