Force10 Networks Broadens Reseller Agreement with IBM

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor

Officials with Force10 Networks (News - Alert) said that by certifying the S60 top-of-rack (ToR) GbE switch for integration with iDataPlex technology, IT managers can now leverage the company’s open network automation functionality to gain greater data center efficiency and agility.

IBM (News - Alert) plans to provide support for the S60 and the Force10 ExaScale virtualized core switch/routers.

According to company officials, the S60 represents the first Force10 ToR switch to ship automation-ready based on the company's recently announced Open Automation Framework, designed to help provide greater data center efficiency and ability to scale and simplify the management and provisioning of complex virtualized data center environments.

"Data center managers are challenged more than ever to deploy massive compute resources to answer their exponential data growth while keeping expenses down," said Alex Yost, vice president, System x servers at IBM, in a statement.

"Our announcement today leverages our heritage in Linux cluster technology, coupled with the Force10 core and access switches, to simplify infrastructure management and lower power and cooling costs," said Yost.

Company officials said that to handle bursty network traffic at the ToR and increase performance, the S60 provides best-in-class, ultra-deep packet buffering of 1.25 GB – nearly 80 times the buffering capacity of the leading competitive product – and advanced buffer "tunability" via the Force10 Operating System (FTOS).

With its line-rate switching of 48 GbE ports and up to four optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks in 1-RU, the S60 can be easily placed into densely populated and heavily virtualized data center environments. In addition to increasing network manageability, the network automation functionality within the S60 switch enables data center managers to address other ToR key technology challenges, such as configuration flexibility, and reliability.

"Today's virtualized data centers pose many challenges and opportunities as IT managers look to adroitly balance the need for uncompromising performance with cost-effective solutions that are easy to manage," said John Erdman, vice president of OEM alliances, Force10 Networks.

Erdman said that certifying the S60 provides ToR functionality to IBM clustered environments to handle the unexpected and expected increases in traffic by offering a fault-tolerant design along with deep buffering and congestion management technology.

He said that it also ensures maximum network efficiency that delivers on-demand performance, rapid service delivery and lower management, power and cooling costs.

(source: http://10-gigabit-ethernet.tmcnet.com/topics/10-gigabit-ethernet/articles/109018-force10-networks-broadens-reseller-agreement-with-ibm.htm)