Asanté targets workgroup customers

By Phil Hochmuth
Network World, 07/31/00

SAN JOSE - Asanté Technologies - a longtime provider of Macintosh network products, but a nonfactor in enterprise networks - has recently emerged as a new, low-cost alternative for Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet switching.

Earlier this month, the company announced a new Gigabit Ethernet wiring closet switch that lets network professionals deliver quality-of-service (QoS) multimedia and voice applications to the desktop at a lower cost. The switch is designed for small to midsize businesses and for connecting workgroups to an enterprise backbone.

The latest edition to Asanté's new IntraCore switch line is the 6524 workgroup Layer 2 switch, which has 24 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet ports and two modular Gigabit interface convert (GBIC) ports, with a total of 6.4G bit/sec of bandwidth.

"We're finding that a lot of customers can't get an affordable workgroup device for a multiservice environment," says Jim Siegrist, marketing director for Asanté. He says many of Asanté's customers using the 6524 have paid for expensive backbone switches from larger companies, but want a less-expensive device to go in the wiring closet that can still deliver converged LAN services. According to Asanté, the 6524 costs a little more than half the price of Cisco's comparable 24-port, two-GBIC-port Catalyst 3524 XL switch, which sells for $3,000.

With more companies introducing voice, multimedia and other bandwidth-hungry applications - and the falling per-port price of Gigabit Ethernet - analysts predict a surge in Gigabit Ethernet usage and a precipitous drop in prices in the next several years. Framingham, Mass., research firm IDC forecasts the average price per port for Gigabit Ethernet will drop from $839 this year to $335 in 2003. The firm also predicts the number of Gigabit Ethernet ports installed worldwide will go from 1.8 million to 32.6 million over the same period.

The 6524 supports IP multicasting and four levels of IEEE 802.1p QoS traffic prioritization. The device also supports 802.1q virtual LAN tagging for up to 256 VLANs, and up to 16,000 media access control addresses. The device also has port trunking capabilities that let the bandwidth of four 10/100 ports be tied together.

The 6524 and other IntraCore products come with browser-based management software that lets users view and configure the switch from a browser window.

The San Jose firm has been shipping its stackable 8000 and chassis-based 9000 series Gigabit Ethernet backbone switches for several months.

Michael Cozzi is president of Micro Media, an Oak Brook, Ill., network integration firm that has installed IntraCore 8000 switches in a network of 15 schools in Evanston, Ill. He lauded the low price per port of the switches and the easy-to-configure stacking technology in the 8000, 9000 and 6524 series switches.

The IntraCore 6524 is available now and costs $1,650. The 6524 can use GBICs from Asanté or other firms, with prices ranging from $200 to $2,000.

Asanté: www.asante.com