Switches offer WAN traffic management and control.
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Press Release Summary:
Providing bandwidth control for up to 300 Mbps of application throughput, ServerIron®XL Link Load Balancer distributes traffic over multiple IP links and allows user to configure bandwidth commitments for specified IP applications. Backup links and link groups can be configured for transparent and automatic failover in event of link outage. Network health, round trip response time, and bandwidth utilization control traffic distribution across multiple WAN connections.
Original Press Release:
Foundry Adds Advanced WAN Traffic Management and Control to ServerIronXL Application Switch
New Features Optimize IP Application Performance and Ensure Service Availability Over Wide Area IP and VPN Services
SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 17 - Foundry Networks(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced it has enhanced its ServerIron(R)XL switches with new WAN traffic management services. The new features enable enterprises to reduce their WAN costs while simultaneously improving service availability and application response time. These advanced features are part of a suite of Layer 4-7 services supported on the ServerIronXL stackable application switches, which are installed in thousands of networks worldwide.
With Internet and IP connectivity at the heart of business networks today, many enterprises use multiple Internet connections for redundancy, bandwidth scalability and network optimization. The ServerIronXL Link Load Balancer intelligently distributes traffic over multiple IP links, eliminates the need for complex routing designs and allows users to configure bandwidth commitments for specified IP applications. IP applications and groups of applications can be configured with different bandwidth commitments, providing fine-grained control of how expensive Internet access links are utilized. Backup links and link groups can be configured for transparent and automatic failover in the event of a link or link group outage. Multiple parameters, including network health, round trip response time, link cost and bandwidth utilization are used to control and optimize traffic distribution across multiple WAN connections. The ServerIronXL Link Load Balancer delivers the industry's best price-performance, providing bandwidth control for up to 300 Mbps of application throughput, the equivalent of six T3 or two OC-3 WAN links.
Most enterprise organizations today rely on the Border Gateway Protocol-4 (BGP-4) to distribute traffic across links to multiple Internet Service Providers. This requires the enterprise user to be knowledgeable in the operational complexities of BGP-4. BGP-4 was not designed to optimize traffic across multiple links and does not use key metrics such as service response time or bandwidth utilization, nor does it use active network health checks to determine the availability of the destination network or destination server. BGP-4 does not provide the level of control, failover performance and link optimization achievable with the ServerIronXL Link Load Balancer. The ServerIronXL Link Load Balancer provides a cost-effective traffic management solution enabling enterprise users to improve application performance, maximize wide area bandwidth utilization and ensure uninterrupted service in the event of a link or network outage.
"Increasing network performance, improving service availability and containing costs are vital objectives for enterprise IT departments," said Bob Schiff, vice president of product marketing at Foundry Networks. "The ServerIronXL's Link Load Balancer feature set delivers a powerful solution for the network edge, providing application-aware link load balancing and link failover on a platform that can scales to hundreds of megabits/sec of application throughput. This solution allows customers to optimize their access connections and ensure connectivity for their most critical applications."
Foundry's ServerIron switch family provides sophisticated Internet traffic and application content management features for server farm high availability and security, optimized performance, and multi-site redundancy and scalability. Some of the world's most demanding customers such as AOL TimeWarner, NTT DoCoMo, and Wachovia Bank rely on Foundry ServerIron systems for server farm scalability and application security.
Availability and Pricing
The new ServerIronXL TrafficWorks Link Load Balancer software (Release 7.4.01) is available free of charge for existing customers with support contracts. This software is also available as a free download to new ServerIronXL customers. ServerIronXL application switches start at $8,995 US List.
About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing 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, access routers and Metro routers. Foundry's 7,800 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.foundrynetworks.com.
NOTE: Foundry Networks, ServerIron and the 'Iron' family of marks are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.
