SANTA CLARA, Calif. and LAS VEGAS, April 28, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Foundry Networks(r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, announces a defined vision for advancing the data center along with a new wave of product innovation, which delivers on the new vision. Foundry's(tm) new data center vision and products allow data center IT managers to amplify overall data center capacity, performance, flexibility and efficiency to new levels never before seen by delivering a compelling network solution that will free organizations from the technical and physical limitations currently impeding growth. Foundry's data center vision and strategy consist of four key pillars: performance, virtualization, convergence and efficiency.
"Foundry has consistently been a networking pioneer in industry-leading performance and innovation," said Bobby Johnson, president and chief executive officer for Foundry Networks. "Foundry's advanced data center solutions reset the standard for capacity, performance, flexibility and convergence, continuing our tradition in innovation, which will enable the evolution of data centers to meet growth and performance requirements."
Maximizing Data Center Performance
With rich content, constant on-demand Internet access, and data-intensive applications and services causing the migration of many mainstream servers from gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to 10GbE connectivity, increasing data center network capacity, including the capacity of the data center interface to the backbone/Internet, becomes crucial for scaling services. In addition to increased bandwidth capacity, network latency between servers can be reduced creating noticeable benefits for the IT administrator and the end user. Foundry's data center vision and product strategy defines a comprehensive approach that integrates switching, routing and application delivery to effectively increase overall data center scalability. Foundry's long pedigree in creating high-performance networking products plays a strong role in its ability to deliver best-in-class performance while also being able to deliver unique scalability benefits that allow for industry-leading capacity headroom to protect data centers' infrastructure investment.
Consolidation of Applications and Services Through Virtualization
Consolidation of applications and services into fewer servers and network devices yields great benefits in terms of manageability, service deployment flexibility and cost-efficiency for the data center. A key trend in achieving server consolidation is through the use of virtualization software. Virtualization is further complemented by virtualized network services. Foundry's advanced data center vision and products enable IT managers to utilize virtualized network services, such as virtual LANs, multiple virtual routing, switching and security domains, and advanced application switching and service abstraction to extend the benefits of virtualization into the network, thereby accelerating consolidation of applications over a unified virtualized infrastructure. In addition to providing improved manageability, better economies of scale and rapid service deployment, these technologies also allow true traffic separation for security, regulatory compliance, or SLA enforcement as well as high availability by intelligently directing traffic to the available physical/virtual servers.
Converging Data Center Server and Storage Networks
A unified network is a crucial component in Foundry's advanced data center vision. Converging server and storage traffic over Ethernet delivers compelling benefits, including simplified network management, higher availability, and reduced capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx). Foundry's distinct approach to switching and routing emphasizes low latency without sacrificing network intelligence, advanced end-to-end quality of service (QoS) and security capabilities, which are key attributes to enabling a converged data center.
Optimizing Power Efficiency to Boost Scalability and Reduce Operating Costs
Rising power costs and limited energy supply to data centers have created a bottleneck for data center expansion. The dramatic increase in data storage, network traffic, and service and deployment complexity will drive up data center power, cooling, and space requirements, which translates into increased overall operating costs. Power, cooling and space constraints will limit data center scalability and impede business innovation and progress. Foundry effectively addresses this critical problem using a two prong solution:
* Providing industry's best-in-class power efficiency without compromising performance by optimizing watts consumed for each gigabit of actual performance (watt/Gbps). Foundry envisions this key metric as playing an important role in ensuring networking equipment power efficiency. * Consolidating what traditionally took multiple power hungry chassis into a single, high-density and industry-leading chassis design with capacity and efficiency benefits never before available.
The inherent effect of these innovative breakthroughs is a highly efficient data center solution that collapses server connectivity within the data center into fewer devices, drastically reducing power consumption, lowering cooling requirements, and requiring less rack space, which further supports Foundry's ongoing green networking initiatives. This also results in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and a faster return on investment (ROI).
Delivering the Foundry Data Center Vision
To address performance, virtualization, convergence and efficiency challenges, Foundry is announcing a new wave of products designed to deliver on the defined vision. The first set of new products include new high-density interface modules for the Foundry industry leading BigIron(r) RX switch and NetIron(r) MLX router platforms.
Since their introduction, the BigIron RX series switches have consistently reset the bar for high-performance, high-density, resilient switching for data centers. A new 16-port 10GbE interface module for the BigIron RX switch series will further increase scalability up to 512 ports of 10GbE server connections in a single switch. This, in addition to the series leading capacity of up to 1,536 GbE ports per system, provides data center architects with unmatched capacities for server aggregation, for both GbE and 10GbE servers, allowing for fewer switches to maximize performance and optimize power and cooling efficiency. The inherent hardware and software resiliency of the series, combined with its support for industry standard and proprietary rapid convergence protocols further enable high-availability data center services.
The NetIron MLX routers complement the BigIron RX switches by providing high-performance, high-end routing, multiple virtual routing, and advanced security capabilities in data center applications. The NetIron MLX series is unmatched in its IPv4, IPv6, and Multi-VRF wire-speed routing performance without compromise. In addition to the series' industry-leading capacity of up to 128 10GbE wire-speed routing ports per system, a new high-density GbE interface module for the NetIron MLX router series will boost the series capacity up to 1,536 ports in a single router. The new module will enable data center designs based on collapsed access and aggregation layers with virtualized routing services extended into the access layer for maximizing performance and enhancing manageability.
The NetIron MLX routers deliver high-end data center routing and aggregation capabilities beyond high port density. It offers unmatched network scalability with up to 32 10GbE links per link aggregation and sophisticated link aggregation and equal cost multi-path (ECMP) load-sharing algorithms. With this industry-leading high-bandwidth capability, the MLX provides data center architects with ample network capacity and scalability to support service growth in large enterprise and Internet data centers, as well as up to 320 Gbps inter-switch and data center connectivity.
These new products, combined with Foundry's visionary architectures, which include lossless fabrics and advanced distributed buffering design, deliver extraordinary performance, flexibility, scalability, capacity, and power and cooling efficiency benefits to data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
To learn more about Foundry's data center solutions online visit http://www.foundrynet.com/solutions/sol-enterprise/sol-datacenter-core.
About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro and core routers. Foundry's customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynet.com.
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Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's current information and beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by management. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements by executives or spokespeople regarding Foundry's positioning and potential plans. The forward-looking statements in this press release are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Furthermore, no statements made by Foundry Networks, Inc. ("Foundry") in this press release, or information contained herein, may be deemed to constitute either an amendment of an existing agreement or an implied new commitment, promise or legal obligation by Foundry to develop or deliver any specific product, feature or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any product, feature, or functionality described herein remains at Foundry's sole discretion.