Force10 Networks today introduced the ExaScale E-Series family of switch/routers to meet the stringent performance, management and cost requirements of today’s virtualized data center and cloud computing environments. As enterprises transition to virtualized data centers and adopt cloud-based services, the network is increasingly required to be more dynamic and responsive to changing resource demands. The Force10 ExaScale E-Series is designed to deliver the performance, availability, resiliency and flexibility essential to power these new dynamic environments while significantly lowering total operating and management costs.

“As one of the world’s largest centers for scientific research, CERN’s advanced network delivers 100 Gigabits per second of aggregate bandwidth to collaborators around the globe and is the key link in our total chain of information capture and analysis,” said David Foster, Deputy Head of the IT department at CERN. “The Force10 ExaScale E-Series has demonstrated the ultra throughput and buffer management that will ensure the application reliability and performance we require to support our more than 9,000 scientists around the world.”

With support for the industry’s leading line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet densities, the Force10 ExaScale E-Series reduces capital costs and simplifies management to reduce ongoing operational expenses.

The ExaScale E-Series also extends Force10’s history of enabling cost-effective network ownership with an energy-saving, eco-efficient power and cooling design that provides the industry’s lowest power consumption per line-rate port. Patent-protected advances in backplane and chip design as well as custom designed power components reduce overall system power consumption and lower per port consumption by as much as 70 percent versus comparable competitive platforms.

Enabling Force10’s Virtualization Framework to Fuel Competitive Advantage

The ExaScale E-Series is the foundation for Force10’s Virtualization Framework and provides the multi-terabit platform required to power advanced data centers and cloud computing environments. As budgets have come under pressure, enterprises are turning to virtualization technologies that increase business critical application availability while lowering the total cost of IT infrastructure ownership.

“New technologies, like cloud computing and virtualization are driving rapid changes in the traditional networking architectures because of the higher throughput and lower latencies today’s virtual applications require,” said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of global enterprise research at Yankee Group. “The ExaScale E-Series is the first of a new generation of switch/routers that directly address that challenge by raising the bar for total system capacity while lowering total costs through flatter topologies and reduced power draw.”

Utilizing the management flexibility of the ExaScale E-Series, Force10’s virtual technology suite, including VirtualScale, VirtualControl and VirtualView, enterprises and service providers can build, manage and monitor network and application performance as well as automate business processes. These technologies enable organizations to build more agile virtualized environments that can dynamically respond to changing business requirements, increasing process efficiencies and fueling a sustainable competitive advantage.

The Force10 Virtualization Framework utilizes open, standards-based data center automation and orchestration technology to promote greater efficiency and agility within the data center. By integrating standards-based technology for real-time network traffic analysis and management, enterprises can maximize existing networking resources while building in the flexibility they require to rapidly respond to changing application requirements.

Force10 also partners with leading vendors to provide complete solutions that optimize data center infrastructure. For additional information on the Force10 data center partner ecosystem, please visit the company’s Technology Alliance Partner Program web page, including its computing alliance with IBM.

Extending Force10’s History of Technology Innovation and Leadership

The ExaScale E-Series utilizes Force10’s third generation technology that incorporates patent-protected innovations and design advances to deliver unmatched non-blocking line-rate Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet densities. With support for 140 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports in a half-rack chassis, the ExaScale E-Series is the only switch/router with 100 Gbps of useable data capacity per slot today.

With the industry’s highest buffering capacity on a data center optimized switch and the ability to modify buffer allocations according to specific application requirements, the ExaScale E-Series also delivers superior traffic management by enabling architects to tune peak application performance, independent of network load.

The ExaScale E-Series delivers an industry-leading total throughput of more than two billion packets per second across a switching fabric capacity of up to 3.5 Tbps or 250 Gbps full duplex per slot. Utilizing the capacity of the switching fabric, the ExaScale E-Series delivers continuous non-blocking, line-rate throughput that eliminates network bottlenecks, regardless of packet size or enabled features.

FTOS Powers New Management Efficiencies

The Force10 ExaScale E-Series is powered by FTOS, the Unix-like modular Force10 operating system with an industry-standard command line interface that provides comprehensive yet simplified management, automation and resource provisioning capabilities. The complete Force10 Reliable Networking switch/router product portfolio leverages the power of FTOS, which has been hardened in some of the largest and most demanding environments in the world to provide inherent total system stability while eliminating unplanned network downtime.

Leading Technology for Next Generation Environments

The Force10 ExaScale E-Series is purpose-built for demanding network environments, including:

• Virtualized data center and cloud computing networks with multiple switching or routing domains in local or geographically disparate environments
• High-performance computing networks with non-blocking and deterministic management and storage I/O requirements
• High-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching and routing in high-performance Layer 2 and IP core or aggregation networks

The ExaScale E-Series also provides the key technologies and functionality to facilitate seamless interoperability for tomorrow’s converged fabric and MPLS-ready networks, including:

• IPv4 unicast and multicast routing for advanced services networks
• IPv6 ready for native and dual stack next-generation IP networks
• MPLS ready with P router and VPN functionality
• 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet ready

“The ExaScale platform represents a logical extension of the Force10 vision for the new terabit-enabled data center,” said Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing, Force10 Networks. “True non-blocking, line-rate throughput, scalability and nimble resource allocation give enterprises the tools needed to create greater data center efficiency and TCO.”

The Force10 Reliable Networking product portfolio supports advances in reliability, network control and scalability that enable enterprises to lower their total cost of ownership. By building a flexible network that is ready to support emerging and evolving applications, enterprises can optimize their networks for current needs as well as future requirements.

Pricing and Availability

The half-rack Force10 ExaScale E1200i chassis bundle starts at $89,000 and is available today. For more information, including product data sheets, specifications and images, please visit: http://www.force10networks.com/products/.