HP aims beefy new OpenFlow-enabled switch at campus netwoks
Hot on the heels of entering the commodity networking business to go after hyperscale data centers, Hewlett-Packard Co. is returning to the proprietary world with a new campus switch that uses the latest iteration of its homegrown packet processor to provide a substantial speed boost over the competition.
In particular, the 5400R zl2 v3 series targets the mid-range Catalyst 4500 line from Cisco Systems Inc., which is commonly used to support important locations such corporate headquarters where a large number of users share the same network. HP says that its new kit can handle the high-volume traffic flowing through such environments up to six times faster than its competitor with as little as one-third of the latency.
The 2Tbps switch also takes advantage of the new silicon to support as many as 24 times the number of connections as the comparable Catalyst 4500 model when using OpenFlow, a standard for controlling packet forwarding operations that forms the basis of software-defined networking. It’s that programmatic approach that HP ultimately hopes will differentiate it from its dominant rival.
The company has created an online catalog with pre-packaged management features that customers can install on its networking equipment, including the 5400R zl2 v3, without the effort involved in manually implementing that kind of functionality. The new switch is accompanied by the latest addition to the store, a visualization utility that promises to provide a real-time view of traffic.
HP says that the tool can help administrators trace the source of bottlenecks and other technical problems faster than conventional methods that are performed at lower layers of abstraction allow. Findings gleaned through the software can be implemented in the complementary network optimization utility on the company’s catalog, which has also been updated as part of the roll-out to better accommodate media content and mobile devices.
The 5400R zl2 v3 will start shipping next month starting at $3,299, while the new visualization software is set to become available for download in June.
Image via Pixabay
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