BLADE Delivers 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch for Enterprises That Need to Add Speed and Intelligence to Existing Data Center Edge Networks

SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/16/10 -- BLADE Network Technologies (BLADE), the data center switching company, announced today the new RackSwitch G8052, a top-of-rack Gigabit Ethernet edge switch with 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) uplinks for 40Gbps connectivity to upstream networks and a rich combination of networking features for today's highly virtualized enterprise data center. The RackSwitch G8052 is an addition to BLADE's 10GbE RackSwitch family, and is designed to address the large market for 1GbE connectivity, while providing an easy path to 10GbE and virtualization-aware networks.

"With our RackSwitch G8052, BLADE continues to lead the way in providing greater speed and intelligence at the edge of the network," said Dan Tuchler, vice president of Strategy and Product Management, BLADE Network Technologies. "Our new top-of-rack switch is designed for the demands of the data center to connect vast deployments of servers equipped with Gigabit Ethernet to 10G networks."

The RackSwitch G8052 incorporates a number of enhancements for virtualization awareness, enhanced stacking, low latency, line-rate performance, congestion prevention and additional packet buffers in a single-ASIC design.

• A single state-of-the-art switch ASIC and management processor result in lower latency, faster boot times for larger configuration files, better multicast performance, higher IGMP join rates, faster failover and larger route tables.
  
  
• BLADE RackSwitch G8052 includes VMready 3.0 with Virtual Vision to secure and automate Virtual Machine migrations across large data center environments. BLADE's innovative and proven VMready "sees" Virtual Machines (VMs) as they move from server to server, protecting virtual machines by automatically synchronizing network policies among switches and hypervisors. With the Virtual Vision central policy database, BLADE's VMready provides a single point of management for VM traffic and security across an entire data center with hundreds of servers and thousands of VMs, all designed for easy transition to emerging IEEE 802.1Qbg standards.
  
  
• Because network traffic between highly virtualized multi-core servers generates large amounts of server-to-server network traffic, virtualized servers need congestion notifications much earlier than enabled by conventional switches. BLADE RackSwitch G8052 incorporates Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) and Weighed Random Early Detection (WRED), which control packet flow from servers to avoid large saw-tooth fluctuations in network throughput that can slow application performance.
  
  

About BLADE RackSwitch G8052
BLADE RackSwitch G8052 is equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ uplink ports. It provides the enhanced performance and efficiency required for virtualization-intensive data centers through its single-chip ASIC design, low latency of 1.7 microseconds, server-friendly airflow, line-rate performance and additional packet buffers.

BLADE's VMready ensures that Quality of Service (QoS), VLAN and Access Control List (ACL) settings automatically follow virtualized applications as they migrate from server to server across an enterprise network, thus providing enhanced security for mission critical applications and data, as well as simplifying management.

"The data center network of the 21st century offers visibility into, and control of, virtualized servers in a new network fabric," said Lucinda Borovick, vice president, ECI and Datacenter Networks, IDC. "This new data center network is a consolidated network that uses switches designed for highly virtualized data center environments to provide provisioning simplicity while dynamically adjusting to changes in application traffic demands. Such consolidated networks will reduce cabling complexity, provide operational savings and offer the most comprehensive interoperability to data center assets."

Price and Availability
BLADE RackSwitch G8052 is available now through BLADE's RackSwitch Solution Partners at an MSRP of $6,600 USD.

About BLADE Network Technologies
BLADE Network Technologies (BLADE), the data center switching company, brings speed and intelligence to the network edge; closer to customers' business, users and innovations. BLADE's lossless, low-latency, and low-power RackSwitch and blade switches connect servers, storage and networks in the world's largest enterprises. Proven and interoperable, Unified Fabric Architecture is BLADE's solution for converged Ethernet and virtualization-aware networking for cloud computing, Web 2.0, financial services and other HPC applications. Visit: www.bladenetwork.net Twitter: @BLADENetwork

BLADE Network Technologies, the BLADE logo, BLADEHarmony, BLADEOS, FabricHarmony, iFlow Director, RackSwitch, RackSwitch Solution Partner, Smart Server Control, VMready, vNIC, NMotion and Unified FabricArchitecture are trademarks of BLADE Network Technologies. All product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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