INTERCONNECTS

Foundry Networks, Inc., a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced the intelligent and high-performance ServerIron GT series Layer 4-7 gateway switches with integrated support for SSL acceleration. The new switches combine best-of-breed Layer 4-7 switching with high-performance SSL acceleration in a compact form factor to deliver a total application infrastructure solution to maximize availability, scalability and performance of secure business and web applications. Using a highly innovative network processor technology and rich set of security capabilities, these systems protect server farms against wire-speed Gigabit rate Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and deliver superior Layer 4-7 and SSL connection performance to meet the needs of the most demanding customers. The ServerIron GT series integrates the industry's leading Layer 2/3 switching and routing with intelligent Layer 4-7 switching and high-performance SSL acceleration. With a choice of configurations, these switches simplify network and server farm design, and ease application and server farm manageability. Advanced Layer 4-7 intelligence and security features maximize availability and scalability of mission-critical application infrastructure. Application servers traditionally perform poorly when dealing with SSL transactions that require computationally intensive RSA operations. Adding to the performance challenge is the manageability and security of SSL certificates in a distributed server cluster environment. ServerIron GT Layer 4-7 switches with integrated SSL acceleration help offload servers from SSL processing, and also centralize certificate management for increased security and ease of management. Additionally, these switches provide intelligent Layer 7 switching on traffic carried over SSL connections, which enables advanced application clustering solutions for maximum availability and scalability. Application security functions of the ServerIron GT switches are also extended to SSL traffic because the traffic is visible in clear text. Key features of the ServerIron GT series switches include: -- Efficient Load Balancing: Support for a range of load balancing methods and metrics like least connections, server weight, application response time, and bandwidth to maximize server farm efficiency and availability. -- Intelligent Content Switching: Extensive built-in application intelligence and sophisticated content inspection engine for scalability, connection persistence, and security of applications based on standard protocols and proprietary content. -- Integrated SSL Acceleration: Termination and acceleration of SSL connections, and centralized SSL certificate management for added security and easy manageability. Offloads servers from SSL processing, and supports content switching on SSL connections. -- Robust Application Security: Ability to protect applications and server farms from wire-speed Gigabit rate (DoS) attacks up to 1.5 million SYN packets per second while serving legitimate application traffic. High- performance content inspection and filtering engine to discard application messages carrying virus, worm and other malicious content. -- High Availability: A range of high availability options to maximize application uptime even during failures of the ServerIron switch. Support for real-time synchronization and stateful failover of client connections between switches to help eliminate disruption to application transactions during switch failures. -- Sophisticated Health Checks: Performs many types of user-configurable and highly customizable health checks to servers and applications using Layer 2/3/4/7 mechanisms. Quickly identifies downed server resources and redirects client connections to available servers. -- Transparent Application Support: Load balancing and Layer 7 content switching support for any IP application using TCP and UDP for transport. Transparent support for many standard protocols like HTTP, FTP, TELNET, and SMTP, and proprietary applications. -- sFlow Traffic Accounting: Standards-based always-on sFlow traffic accounting provides visibility to network and application usage on a per-flow basis. Real-time export of traffic information helps identify and rapidly troubleshoot problems in the network and server farms. -- Advanced Layer 2/3 Switching and Routing: ServerIron GT switches provide Layer 2/3 switching and routing, and combine with Layer 4-7 switching for a complete network and application infrastructure solution. Support for advanced routing protocols including RIPv2, OSPF, and VRRP/VRRP-E. "Use of SSL is growing as more applications that demand transaction security and confidentiality migrate to the Web. Accelerating the performance of SSL applications and improving their security is critical to a reliable application infrastructure," said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. "Integrating SSL support is a logical way to help simplify datacenter design and protect ROI while delivering performance and scalability." "Foundry's comprehensive Layer 4-7 switching solutions are designed to meet a wide range of application and server farm infrastructure needs," said Ken Cheng, vice president of marketing for Foundry. "With the addition of the new ServerIron GT series Layer 4-7 gateway switches, Foundry expands product leadership and delivers more solutions to the challenges of availability, scalability and security for mission-critical applications. Integrated support for high-performance SSL acceleration helps enterprise and service provider customers extend and maximize the benefits of Foundry Layer 4-7 switching to secure SSL-based Web applications." ServerIron GT gateway switches are available in the following configurations: -- ServerIron GT-4G: Four 10/100/1000 ports with optional redundant power supply. Fiber and copper Gigabit Ethernet media are supported. -- ServerIron GT-SSL-4G: Four 10/100/1000 ports with integrated SSL acceleration and optional redundant power supply. Fiber and copper Gigabit Ethernet media supported. -- ServerIron GT-SSL-12G: Twelve 10/100/1000 ports with integrated SSL acceleration and optional redundant power supply. Fiber and copper Gigabit Ethernet media supported. The ServerIron GT series is part of the complete family of Foundry's ServerIron Layer 4-7 solutions ranging from the fixed configuration switches to high-end modular switches that scale up to 112 Gigabit Ethernet ports. ServerIron Layer 4-7 switches provide sophisticated Internet traffic and content switching features including server load balancing, URL and cookie based switching, global server load balancing, and transparent cache switching. Some of the world's most demanding customers such as AOL TimeWarner, CheckFree Corporation, NTT DoCoMo, and Wachovia Bank rely on Foundry ServerIron systems for server farm scalability and application security. The ServerIron GT switches will be available in summer 2004 with the following prices: -- ServerIron GT-4G: $14,995 U.S. List -- ServerIron GT-SSL-4G: $21,995 U.S. List -- ServerIron GT-SSL-12G: $27,995 U.S. List