INTERCONNECTS

Force10 Networks, the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks, today announced that eHarmony is powering its online relationship service with the TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series provides a flexible network foundation upon which eHarmony can support its more than 12 million registered users today and delivers the scalability required to add new customers and services in the future. "As the most trusted relationship service in the country, eHarmony has to deliver complete service reliability, including the uptime of our network," said Cyrus Mohit, manager of data center operations at eHarmony. "With the Force10 E-Series, we have the flexibility and freedom to easily adapt the network to accommodate new services without a complex upgrade or network redesign." Force10 TeraScale E600To build its 10 Gigabit Ethernet data center network, eHarmony has deployed the Force10 TeraScale E600 to aggregate servers in its East and West Coast data centers and to provide a resilient 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone that interconnects the core switch infrastructure. Additionally, eHarmony has deployed the TeraScale E300 as the peering router at the WAN edge of the network to connect its data centers to its bandwidth providers. As eHarmony continues to build its service with new features, network flexibility is crucial. Force10's diverse portfolio of line cards provides that flexibility. By using a combination of line-rate and high density line cards within a single system, eHarmony can optimize its network for each application and service. Additionally, as network needs change, eHarmony can seamlessly respond to those changes. The unique three CPU architecture of the Force10 TeraScale E-Series distributes switching, routing and management functionalities between disparate processors. This distributed functionality enables the TeraScale E-Series to deliver line-rate switching and routing across leading port densities regardless of traffic conditions. The architecture of the TeraScale E-Series, combined with a robust software implementation that emphasizes function modularity, also ensures maximum network uptime for eHarmony's online relationship services. "As one of the country's most visited and recognized consumer web sites, eHarmony needed a trusted partner for its network infrastructure," said Mark Cooper, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Force10 Networks. "The TeraScale E-Series has the unique resiliency and scalability characteristics that enable eHarmony to support its customers." eHarmony registers 10,000-15,000 new users every day and, on average, more than 100 couples a day that have been matched through the relationship service marry.