New Modules Enable BlackDiamond 8800 Switching Platform to Deliver Complete System for End-to-End Network Deployments -- All Within a Single Chassis

Extreme Networks today announced a key addition to its industry-leading BlackDiamond 8800 switching family, an Ethernet network platform for high performance, high value and smart connectivity from the network edge to the core and data center.

The trend for value-based enterprise networking at the edge is driven by organizations that are aiming for high performance and secure networks that can be cost-effectively deployed today, while keeping an eye to the future. Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8500-series wiring closet modules offer a comprehensive and high-value solution addressing customers' needs for cost-effective, yet feature-rich converged switching capabilities with natural upgrade paths for scalability and growth on demand.

"The BlackDiamond 8500 modules represent a great opportunity to deploy flexible, low cost and high performance modular switches in the wiring closet," said Mike Taylor, chief technology officer for SPS, a leading national integrator. "We partner with Extreme Networks because they have a complete approach with the BlackDiamond 8800 family that is fully upgradeable, without changing the chassis, with choices from Fast Ethernet, to dense Gigabit to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and for integrated PoE. Extreme also provides the consistency of a uniform operating system, ExtremeXOS, across all switches to simplify deployment, driving more value at every level."

Organizations require an end-to-end network with advanced automation features to discover and provision network edge devices, resiliency to handle fiber outages with minimal impact to users and security to identify and mitigate threats. The BlackDiamond 8800 addresses all of these requirements with a comprehensive family of module choices on a single chassis, and a uniform operating system, ExtremeXOS. The result is a total modular solution to tackle the most flexible network deployments.

Product Highlights

• Automated Service Recovery: A redundant MSM for maximum availability, and a resilient network operating system for maximum network protection
• Investment Protection: Scalability and growth on demand, allowing for flexible end-to-end deployment
• Value: Cost effective switching with value-add services and Limited Lifetime Warranty to lower TCO
• Automated Configuration: Open architecture to simplify manageability and Universal Port software to ease network provisioning
• Automated Security Embedded security features to help protect corporate data at the access edge and dynamic ACLs for faster response to threats
• Warranty: Extreme Networks new Limited Lifetime Warranty is standard with BlackDiamond 8500-series modules.

"The BlackDiamond 8800 family addresses voice and data convergence through high resiliency, automation of common tasks through software and secure networking, making it the best value for the wiring closet," said Harpreet Chadha, senior director of product management for Extreme Networks. "This new offering further reinforces our product strategy to offer customers a wide range of cost and performance choices for every part of their network."

Pricing and Availability

The BlackDiamond 8500-series modules will be available this quarter. The Management Switch Module (MSM), the BlackDiamond 8500-MSM24, has a U.S. list price of $4,995. The 24 port Gigabit fiber module, the BlackDiamond 8500-G24X-e, has a U.S. list price of $6,995. The 48 port Gigabit Base-T module, the BlackDiamond 8500-G48T-e, has a U.S. list price of $3,995.