Enterasys scales up enterprise switching

Enterasys Monday supersized its gear for enterprise LANs, introducing a series of bigger routing switches as well as port modules with higher performance and advanced traffic-handling features.

The new switch series, called the Matrix N-Series, complements the company's existing E-Series switches. The modules introduced Monday, called Distributed Forwarding Engines (DFE), can be installed in the company's existing Matrix E-Series switches as well as the new N-Series platforms.

Enterasys is looking to step up LAN performance for enterprises with growing needs for bandwidth, security and traffic prioritization, a set of demands that some analysts believe are starting to hit enterprises. For example, the DFEs, which include all switching and routing functions within an individual port module, can recognize voice-over-IP traffic and give it priority over other types of traffic, according to Enterasys.

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Enterasys Monday supersized its gear for enterprise LANs, introducing a series of bigger routing switches as well as port modules with higher performance and advanced traffic-handling features.

The new switch series, called the Matrix N-Series, complements the company's existing E-Series switches. The modules introduced Monday, called Distributed Forwarding Engines (DFE), can be installed in the company's existing Matrix E-Series switches as well as the new N-Series platforms.

Enterasys is looking to step up LAN performance for enterprises with growing needs for bandwidth, security and traffic prioritization, a set of demands that some analysts believe are starting to hit enterprises. For example, the DFEs, which include all switching and routing functions within an individual port module, can recognize voice-over-IP traffic and give it priority over other types of traffic, according to Enterasys.

"Enterprise IP telephony deployments have been fairly slow, but one of the reasons they have been slow is that these features haven't been available," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at The Yankee Group, in Boston.

For secure wireless LANs, the Enterasys gear can send security and traffic priority policies for a particular user out to Enterasys wireless access points when that user goes on the wireless LAN, according to Bill Clark, director of product marketing for Enterasys' switch product group. If an enterprise uses non-Enterasys access points, those policies can be applied at the switch port where the access point links up to the wired LAN - a different policy for each user, he added.

Enterasys, like Cisco, is moving in the right direction by integrating high-level functions into the network gear itself, along with user authentication and enhanced quality of service for business-critical applications, Kerravala said. That helps to automate the capabilities, leaving less room for human error and providing greater reliability, he said.

Although basic enterprise LAN gear has fallen dramatically in price in recent years, most large enterprises still want to team up with a high-end vendor such as Enterasys or Cisco to take advantage of innovations, said Chris Kozup, an analyst at Meta Group, in Stamford, Conn. However, they shouldn't buy into new technologies for their own sake, he added.

"They need to match the requirements that the business has with the functionality that the network provides," Kozup said.

The N-Series switches provide Ethernet connectivity for new enterprise LAN deployments, which typically use Ethernet exclusively, said Bill Clark, director of product marketing for Enterasys' switch product group. Enterasys will continue offering the E-Series switches, which can include interfaces for legacy technologies such as ATM and FDDI.

The company also two N-Series chassis. The Matrix N7, for midsized and large wiring closets and data centers, has seven usable slots and can handle as many as 94.5 million packets per second. It can accommodate as many as 504 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet ports. The Matrix N3, for small and midsized installations, has three usable slots for as many as 216 10/100M bit/sec ports and performance of 40.5 million packets per second. Both are designed for integration of power-over-Ethernet capability to power wireless LAN access points and IP phones.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.