Extreme Networks Tightens Network Fabric

Case in point is Extreme Networks, which at the Interop 2011 conference expanded its line of network switches to include a new offering that features a 20-terabit chassis that supports up to 768 non-blocking 10GbE ports or 192 non-blocking 40GbE ports. The company claims that the BlackDiamond X8 provides 1.28Tbps bandwidth per slot, performance of 11.4 billion packets per second (Bpps), and the ability to switch up to 128,000 VMs at wire speed. Later on, this same chassis is designed to evolve to 100 GbE, the company said.

The BlackDiamond X8 chassis creates a modular approach to network switching that allows the IT organization to more easily scale applications by adding switch capacity as necessary, says Shehzad Merchant, senior director of strategy for Extreme Networks.

In addition, Merchant notes that IT organizations are looking to consolidate various tiers of switches that have evolved over the years into something more manageable. To that end, Extreme Networks is promoting the concept of an Open Fabric Data Center that is anchored around the Data Center Bridging protocol and family of switches that all share a common operating system. The scale of the Extreme Networks lineup, coupled with the simplicity of an environment that is easier to manage via the same management console, give IT organizations an ability to consolidate the number of tiers they need to support, while still being able to handle the scalability requirements of virtual machines in the age of cloud computing.

The latest addition to the company’s switch lineup is the Summit X670 series, a set of top-of-rack (TOR) switches that support 10 Gigabit Ethernet-attached servers. Those switches, however, can also support a 4x40 GbE uplink for use with next-generation servers.

Pricing for the new offerings has yet to be set.