Start-up to paint new switch picture

Start-up Matisse Networks promises that by year-end it will ship a distributed switch designed to connect the geographically dispersed elements of corporate data centers.

The company says that its equipment connects sites via fiber links more efficiently than current core switches operating in tandem with dense wavelength division multiplexing devices. It says it uses patented technology to do so less expensively and with fewer network devices than conventional means. With a distributed switch, elements would be geographically dispersed on a campus, for example, and behave as one switch, and also be managed as one entity.

The new equipment will rival high-bandwidth switch-routers made by Cisco and Extreme Networks that now are used to connect sites for distributed data centers.

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Start-up Matisse Networks promises that by year-end it will ship a distributed switch designed to connect the geographically dispersed elements of corporate data centers.

The company says that its equipment connects sites via fiber links more efficiently than current core switches operating in tandem with dense wavelength division multiplexing devices. It says it uses patented technology to do so less expensively and with fewer network devices than conventional means. With a distributed switch, elements would be geographically dispersed on a campus, for example, and behave as one switch, and also be managed as one entity.

The new equipment will rival high-bandwidth switch-routers made by Cisco and Extreme Networks that now are used to connect sites for distributed data centers.

A hint about the technology might lie in the company name, which comes from the Expressionist painter Henri Matisse. "Matisse was called the 'master of color,' " says Timon Sloane, the company's vice president of marketing. "We are also mastering color with our innovative use of the optical spectrum to deliver our distributed multi-protocol switch."

Matisse's distributed devices are managed as one switch that can be thought of as having a backplane of optical links, Sloane says. It can be used as the core of a corporate data network, leaving existing infrastructure in place, says company CEO Sam Mathan.

The Matisse switches are designed for anchoring networks within buildings, campuses and metropolitan areas.

This configuration simplifies network architecture by reducing the number of individual switches that connect sites that comprise a distributed data center, the company says. This also reduces capital expenses because the gear costs less than alternatives, and reduces operating expenses because there is less administration, the company says. The company would not quantify potential savings. According to Mathan, the distributed switch also increases available bandwidth on each fiber, although he declined to say how.

Matisse's switch will be available in the second half of 2005. The company will release details this summer.

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