Product palooza at N+I

A rebounding NetWorld+Interop will showcase a bevy of new switching, security and management wares next week in Las Vegas, but it will be the show's swan song at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Having grown over eight years to fill two great halls in its heyday, N+I next year will retreat to the Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which is one-third the size and better suited for what today is a smaller show.

Even though event organizers MediaLive say next month's N+I will feature 25% more vendors than last year - about 350 - and draw 20,000 attendees, that is a fraction of the 800 vendors and 50,000 attendees the show attracted in 2000.

But with IT budgets on the rise this year, industry watchers say vendors are using N+I as a launching pad for products, with the hope that it will get their names on buyers' wish lists.

"A lot of [buyers] couldn't do upgrades over the past few years, and they realize if they don't start making investments in certain strategic areas they are going to fall behind," says Stephen Elliot, a senior analyst at IDC.

BMC Software, Enterasys Networks, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks and Packeteer are among the companies that will use the show to roll out new wares.

Switching news

Enterasys will unveil software for its Matrix N Series switches that lets corporations enforce switch-based authentication and network security policies without replacing wiring closet switches or WLAN access points. Matrix N Series switches with the new software will let customers enforce polices at the network aggregation layer, meaning they can use third-party products at the edge that do not support switch-based security.

Enterasys also will announce a Dragon Intrusion Detection System (IDS) software module for its NetSite Atlas switch management platform. The N Series upgrades are free for customers with support contracts, and will be standard on all new N Series products. The Dragon IDS NetSite module starts at $16,000 for supporting about 250 users.

Extreme is launching a revised version of its ExtremeWare XOS modular switch software, which is based on Linux. Announced in December 2003, along with its BlackDiamond 10K switch, the software lets users stop and start network protocols and services without taking the device offline.

A new feature in ExtremeWare XOS will let users cluster ports across the 10K - even across different modules - to create virtual switches. The virtual switches can be managed as individual devices and used for different functions, such as load balancing, routing or security.

Foundry will launch products that add IPv6 support to its BigIron "Mucho Grande" switch line, which includes the BigIron MG8 backbone switch for corporations. The modules include two- and four-port 10G Ethernet blades ($35,000 and $50,000, respectively), and 40-port Gigabit blades ($45,000 with 10/100/1000M bit/sec ports or $50,000 with fiber ports). Foundry also is announcing a 60-port 10/100/100 blade with IPv6 support for $45,000.

Crescendo will introduce its Maestro data center appliance, a device that offloads network functions from servers to speed application processing. The box, an eight-port Gigabit Ethernet switch that connects directly to servers or can sit next to a server load balancer, performs Secure Sockets Layer/TCP offload, compression and Remote Direct Memory Access switching. It costs $30,000.