Press Releases
2010
Tolly Group Testing Validates the Delivery of Superior Core Switch/Routing Performance, Scalability and Resiliency Features of the Force10 ExaScale™
Extensive testing demonstrates 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet-ready virtualized core switch/router provides line-rate throughput in fully-loaded configurations with advanced features enabled and even during simulated denial-of-service attacks
SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27, 2010 – Force10 Networks, Inc., a global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business, today announced that its ExaScale™ E-Series chassis-based virtualized core switch/router delivered superior Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 GbE performance as well as scalability and resiliency features, according to independent testing results from The Tolly Group. Using sophisticated IP network test systems from Ixia (Nasdaq:XXIA), the tests confirmed that the ExaScale, which leads the industry in GbE and 10 GbE density for a half-rack chassis, delivers 100% line-rate, zero-loss Layer 2 and Layer 3 throughput when tested across the switch’s 1,260 GbE ports and 140 10 GbE ports.
“Our engineers verified that the ExaScale delivers at least 100 Gbps of usable bandwidth per slot, which proves that the switch is 100 GbE-ready. Beyond closely examining the pure performance of the Force10 ExaScale, we also wanted to see how its features could handle scenarios frequently seen in large-scale hosting, portal or enterprise data centers,” said Kevin Tolly, president of The Tolly Group. “In addition to its impressive performance, we believe the industry will respond positively to its fail-over resiliency as well as its ability to maintain line-rate throughput even when advanced features that typically affect performance are enabled, and when the switch is mitigating a 50 Gbps denial-of-service attack.”
To specifically gauge scalability and resiliency features, Tolly engineers measured the ExaScale’s BGP performance to look for route convergence. Here, they found minimal delay occurred when switching from primary routes to back-up routes to simulate a link failure. Other larger route table testing proved the ExaScale is capable of near instantaneous re-advertising of the routes. Tolly testing also showed that that the switch is capable of supporting communication with more than 1,000 peers and 6.5 million paths with background traffic using the BGP protocol.
“As a leading independent test laboratory, we were confident that The Tolly Group would put ExaScale through a series of tests that customers and prospects would want to see if they were evaluating it themselves,” said Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing, Force10 Networks. “The results clearly demonstrate that the ExaScale core switch/routers offer the multi-terabit platform required to power advanced data centers and cloud computing environments while delivering the resiliency and scalability required to increase business-critical application availability while lowering the total cost of IT infrastructure ownership.”
ExaScale E-Series: Delivering on the Promise of Network Virtualization
The ExaScale E-Series family represents the third generation of Force10 switch/routers designed to meet the stringent performance, management and cost requirements of today’s virtualized data center and cloud computing environments.
With support for the industry’s leading 10 GbE and GbE densities for a half-rack chassis, 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. The 40/100 GbE-ready ExaScale can support up to 140 line-rate 10 GbE ports, while delivering 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.
The half-rack Force10 ExaScale chassis bundle starts at $89,000 and is available today. For more information, including product data sheets, specifications and images, visit http://www.force10networks.com/products/. To view The Tolly Group reports, visit ExaScale Performance Report and ExaScale Features Report.
About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks develops high-performance data center solutions powered by the industry’s most innovative line of open, standards-based, networking hardware and software. The company’s Open Cloud Networking framework grants Web 2.0/portal operators, cloud and hosting providers, enterprise and special-purpose data center customers new levels of flexibility, performance, scale and automation—fundamentally changing the economics of data center networking. Force10 Networks operates globally, providing 24x7 service and support to its customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.force10networks.com.
Contact:
Michael Schoolnik
StoryPR on behalf of Force10 Networks Inc.
+1 415-674-3816
michael@storypr.com
Force10 Networks, the Force10 Networks logo, Force10, E-Series, Traverse, and TraverseEdge are registered trademarks and Open Cloud Networking, Z-Series, ZettaScale, ExaScale, S-Series, TeraScale, FTOS, Open Automation, are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.
