Juniper joins top-of-rack switch fray

Juniper this week unveiled a top-of-rack data center switch targeted at high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments.

The EX2500 provides server access with 24 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports and 700 nanosecond latency. The fixed configuration switches support 480Gbps full duplex throughput in a 1 RU footprint. All ports are non-blocking, Juniper says.

The EX2500 will go up against Cisco’s Nexus 5000, Woven Systems’ TRX 200, Arista’s 7124S, HP ProCurve’s 6600 24-VG, BLADE Network Technologies’ G8100, Force10’s S2410, and Extreme’s Summit X650.

The EX2500 supports both back-to-front and front-to-back cooling to accommodate server designs for hot- and cold-aisle layouts. This allows network ports to have closer proximity to server ports and keep cable lengths short and manageable, Juniper says.

The EX2500 has redundant power and fans. Power supplies are load sharing and fans are variable-speed, Juniper says. The variable speed fans will automatically adjust speed under variant conditions to reduce power consumption, the company says.

The EX2500 will be available in the second quarter of 2009. The list price starts at $18,000.

Juniper also said this week it is partnering with server, storage and software companies to develop a converged data center fabric under a multiyear effort dubbed the Stratus Project that will compete with Cisco's largely solo effort.