Extreme Networks sees new market opportunities with 'world's fastest Ethernet switch'

Extreme Networks is expecting to gain entry to new markets that it hasn't been privy to before after announcing the general release of its newest Ethernet switch, the BlackDiamond X8, which it says is the "industry's highest density 40 GbE and 10 GbE switch for enterprise core and cloud-based data centers."

The company said it expects to begin shipping the product in February.

The BlackDiamond X series switches, with its high scalability, offer 1.28 Tbps slot capacity, more than 20 Tbps switching fabric capacity, and up to 768 ports of 10 GbE or 192 ports of 40 GbE per chassis. All of this is available in a footprint of one-third rack size.

Extreme Networks said the BlackDiamond boasts just 3 microsecond port-to-port latency, and said it consumes 5 watts per 10G port.

Gary Newbold, Extreme Networks' managing director for the UK and Ireland, said the new product has allowed the company to talk with large finance organizations it hasn't been able to go after before.

"We've just not had the product," said Newbold. "In finance, latency's really important, so from transaction start to end it's important to make that as quick as possible. We're the market leader now for latency in the core switch, so that should attract lots of attention."

Extreme said it already has sold its first X8 switch to a research institution.

For more:
- see this PC Advisor article

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