Array adds appliances

Array Networks this week will unveil two hardware platforms to support the company’s latest software upgrades.

The company will debut its traffic management appliances, the TM-X 2000 and the TM-X 4000 series. The TM-X 2000 and TM-X 4000 use the company’s TM operating system, now in Version 6.0, a version that supports new features such as link load balancing, monitoring and reporting, network access translation, port forwarding, and disaster recovery.

“We want to offer a true application front-end. Our appliances can point out to customers, ‘You made this change and here’s how it affected application performance,'” says Sunil Cherian, Array’s director of product management. “By putting in technology like memory-based cache we can provide in one box application delivery that’s 10% to 15% faster than a load balancer and cache sitting next to each other.”

Array competes with F5 and Alteon, but Cherian says Array’s combination of acceleration appliances and traffic management software differentiate its offerings from the competition. For example, Version 6.0 of the TM operating system includes upgrades that, Array says, improve runtime operations, availability, security, and management. The company added capabilities that allow the software to perform policy-based routing, pre-configured and custom reporting, synchronized multi-site disaster recovery and port/link redundancy.

The new devices offer Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) acceleration as well. According to Array, the 2000 Series can handle up to 800 new SSL transactions per second with up to 4,000 concurrent SSL connections at 100M bit/sec bulk throughput. The 4000 Series provides up to 5,000 new SSL transactions per second with up to 32,000 concurrent SSL connections at 750M bit/sec.

The TM-X 2000 and TM-X 4000 series each are available in two versions – a two-port version (TM-X 2200 and TM-X 4200) and a second version that offers up to six total Ethernet ports (TM-X 2600 and TM-X 4600). Both series feature tightly coupled Layer 4-7 server load balancing, high-performance caching, security, dynamic content compression and clustering. The platforms also use Array technology that eliminates redundant TCP/IP processing.

The TM-X appliance sits in front of an application server farm or Web farm and can be installed in either of two ways. One option is to locate the device to sit parallel to traffic, which the company says is an easier installation. The second option is to install the appliance in line with traffic, which Array says offers more security than the parallel option.

Array Networks’ TM-X 2000 and TM-X 4000 Series traffic management platforms will be available in limited quantities this month, with full production expected within 30 to 60 days. Pricing for the TM-X 4000 Series starts around $10,000, and the TM-X 2000 prices start a bit lower for base functionality.