Dell announces new networking solutions
Dell has announced new networking solutions to help customers deliver faster results, maximize efficiency and modernize and transform operations in scale-out and cloud-based environments.
According to Dell’s press statement, new products include the Dell Networking Z9500, an energy-efficient, highest density per rack unit, and only pay-as-you grow 10/40 GbE data center core switch available today.
The new Active Fabric Controller and efforts to accelerate Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) solutions into the sector through industry consortiums and collaboration with industry partners such as Red Hat also can help customers transform and modernize data center infrastructures.
The press statement said Dell is helping customers upgrade data center network architectures to meet new demands imposed by virtualization, changing traffic patterns, and the nature of today’s workload needs, including cloud-based and “as-a-service” offerings.
The Dell Networking Z9500 Fabric Switch is a high-density fixed-form factor data center switch with a full suite of L2/L3 routing and switching protocols.
The Dell Networking Z9500 switch is designed to address data center 10/40 GbE aggregation requirements through centralized core or distributed core architectures for high performance enterprise data centers, cloud computing, provider hosted data centers, and enterprise LAN cores. The Dell Networking Z9500 is ideal for workloads such as Web 2.0, high performance computing and virtualization, the statement said.
Its features include:
- Unmatched density/performance: The Z9500 switch delivers up to three times the density per RU and throughput of more than 10 Tbpswith one half the latency compared to Dell’s previous generation switches
- Ultimate flexibility: 3RU core switch with 132 40GbE ports and expandable to 528 10GbE ports
- Scalability for today and tomorrow: Future ready scalability with ‘pay-as-you-go’ licensing for 36, 84, or 132 port SKUs in a fixed form factor switch to build fabrics for small scale data centers and increase fabric capacity as compute demand grows
- Ideal for workloads including Web2.0, high-performance computing, and virtualization demanding flatter fabrics
- Highly efficient: consumes approximately half the power per port of the Cisco Nexus 6004 and tool-less Enterprise ReadyRails mounting kits reduce time and resource for efficient rack installation
And Dell Active Fabric Controller is a purpose-built SDN platform designed to simply and securely configure and deploy networking functionality in cloud and XaaS environments. Dell Active Fabric Controller is targeted for enterprise OpenStack deployments and as an optional component of Dell OpenStack-Powered cloud solutions.
The update offers a single, integrated solution to provide on-demand virtualized network services to OpenStack with fully automated, unified lifecycle management of the physical infrastructure.
Dell Active Fabric Controller has following features:
- Simple operation and intelligent approach: Plug-n-Play networking solution optimized for cloud and application administrators; and works with OpenStack applications to deliver workload and policy awareness. Allows for insertion of service appliances including firewall, load balancing and wide area network optimization
- Deliver customized policy: On-demand customized virtual fabrics that adapts whenever workloads are started, stopped or modified, enhancing the security, performance and efficiency for each application
- Experience ultimate efficiency: Elastic, auto-adapting fabric services offer the ultimate efficiency in design, operations and application provisioning with automated lifecycle operations and self-service for centralized, fabric-wide visibility
From simple plug-and-play device discovery and provisioning, automated topology and forwarding optimization, fabric wide programmability and a simple operational lifecycle, Dell Active Fabric Controller offers a new vision for networking. Active Fabric Controller serves a fundamental building block on both enterprise control software as well as a key element of accelerating NFV deployments with its integration into OpenStack.
Dell is helping bring innovative NFV solutions to market by spearheading industry consortiums such as CloudNFV and collaborating with industry partners including Red Hat. Just as SDN is increasing network flexibility, reducing costs and driving efficiency within enterprise networks, NFV can equally transform the telecommunications industry by utilizing an open, disaggregated, cloud-based approach.