Data center offers hosting and net solutions

Extreme Networks Inc. has announced the Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solutions, a portfolio of Cloud-scale data center switches that allow organizations to build scalable, mobile and virtualized networks that are said to feature market leading performance, low latency and energy efficiency. Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solutions provide standards-based technologies preserving existing investments while bringing new innovations that drive Cloud-scale networks.

The Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solution claims to enhance the ExtremeXOS operating system end-to-end and emphasizes wire-speed switching of Virtual Machines (VMs), intelligence to automate VM mobility through XNV, standards-based, non-blocking high density 10Gbs server connectivity and non-blocking high density 40Gbs fabric interconnect with multipath forwarding that is also designed to evolve for 100GbE.

The Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center architecture incorporates standards-based OpenFlow technology to simplify network provisioning and supports Data Center Bridging (DCB) to provide consolidation of LAN and storage fabrics in the data center, including iSCSI and FCoE.

"Tomorrow's network is defined by intelligent switching platforms with the highest capacity, improved energy efficiency and锟絭ery low latencies," said Phil Butcher, head of IT for the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

"As our work at Sanger continues to push the envelope of scientific research, we need innovations that allow for smooth virtualization, and much greater connectivity per server rack with a seamless Gigabit to 10 Gigabit server transition," Butcher added.

"The Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solution demonstrates our continued innovation in the data center market," said Shehzad Merchant, vice president for technology of Extreme Networks.

"As the Cloud ramps in its adoption and services, and as applications and Virtual Machines become more mobile and dynamic, so do the requirements for greatly improved performance and control from the network," Merchant added.

The BlackDiamond X8 is said to provide industry breakthroughs with market leading 20 Terabit switching capacity, 1.28Tbps bandwidth per slot, performance of 11.4 Billion packets per second (Bpps), and switching up to 128,000 VMs at wire speed that is designed to evolve to 100 GbE. The modular switch combines industry-leading density in a 1/3 rack, support for virtualization, and impressive energy efficiency at 5 watts per 10GbE port.

The BlackDiamond X8's low latency of less than 3 micro-seconds and support of N+1 grid redundancy scale data center build outs. Furthermore, the BlackDiamond X8 is said to equip with redundant power, redundant management, redundant fabrics, and populated for 768 10GbE interfaces.

Meanwhile, the Summit X670 series switches are purpose-built, Top-of-Rack (TOR) switches designed to support the cost-effective migration to scalable and energy efficient networks with 10 Gigabit Ethernet-attached servers addressing enterprise and cloud data centers. The Summit X670 helps optimize server deployments with its optional, future-proofing 4x40 GbE uplink support and support from existing 1GbE servers to 10 GbE servers.

Extreme Networks has performed compatibility testing on the Summit X70 switches with a number of 10GbE adapters, including the Intel Server Adapter X520. The Summit X670 switch is being demonstrated at Interop, connecting to servers equipped with the Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520.

"Changes in the data center market, including virtualization, the adoption of unified networking and Cloud computing, combined with increased server computational density enabled by multicore Intel Xeon processors, is driving the need for dense 10 GbE connectivity," said Steve Schultz, director for product marketing of Intel's LAN Access Division.

"With its low power requirements, high performance, and support for LAN and SAN traffic, the Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520 is an excellent complement for 10 Gigabit switches such as these new products from Extreme Networks," Schultz added.

Extreme Networks Summit X670 switches are said to offer up to 64 ports of high density 10 GbE in 1RU and support up to 448 10 GbE ports in an 8-unit virtual chassis using the SummitStack-V160, delivering up to 160Gbit/s stacking bandwidth with distributed forwarding. Extreme Networks Summit X670 TOR switches are said also to offer sub micro-second latency. The Summit X670 switches are expected to be available for shipment in July 2011.

"A sweet spot of the Cloud and data center transition will be the migration of virtualized servers from 1GbE to 10GbE, where much denser and highly efficient network architectures are required," said Jon Oltsik, principal analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group. "With the Extreme Networks Open Fabric, featuring the BlackDiamond X8 and Summit X670 switches, Extreme Networks offers solutions that shift performance dynamics to a whole new level while also addressing what will be a very common need," he added.