Taiwan's Largest Grid Researcher Selects Extreme Networks High Density Switches For Its High Performance Computing Needs

Press release:


August 30, 2012

Taiwan's Largest Grid Researcher Selects Extreme Networks High Density Switches For Its High Performance Computing Needs

Academica Sinica powers breakthrough research in HPC environment

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) today announced that Taiwan's preeminent education institution, Academia Sinica, has selected its scalable data center switches as part of a network upgrade to support the demands of its high performance computing (HPC) and cloud network.

Academia Sinica selected Extreme Networks versatile and highly dense switches to gain a robust and reliable 10 Gigabit network that is capable of continuously transferring huge volumes of data in continuous periods and would ultimately scale to 100 Gigabit Ethernet.

Extreme Networks supports global leading universities and research institutions such as the Wellcome Sanger Trust Institute, Johns Hopkins University and CEA Saclay.  At Academica Sinica, a team of physicists within the Academia Sinica Grids (ASG) research area are analyzing the particles created in collisions within the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. To support the LHC as part of a worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) project, as well as other research initiatives, ASGC implemented more than 2,500 blade servers in its computer facility.

"We were already using Extreme Networks technology, but when we evaluated vendors' switching gear capable of expanding the network to accommodate HPC architecture, we sought great price-performance backed by fast delivery. Extreme Networks offering ticked all the boxes, and we had experienced excellent service from them in the past," said Wen-Shui Chen, network manager for ASG. "The BlackDiamond® is a great fit for large and dense networks."

ASG is Extreme Networks largest blade server customer in Taiwan, with 52 racks in 135m^2. With more than 5.4petabytes of storage capacity including disk and tape, it also represents one of Taiwan's largest data centers. ASGC is using Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8900 series fabric switches, comprising a BlackDiamond 8810 chassis fully loaded with BlackDiamond 8900 module cards.

"Scientific and research facilities such as Academia Sinica need to be able to analyze immense amounts of real-time data from myriad sources in order to make real-time decisions. Having a flexible, high-performance core network and data center is critical to HPC applications," said Huy Nguyen, director of product management for Extreme Networks. "An Ethernet-based HPC interconnect like Extreme Networks offers data-intensive organizations a significant advantage due to its cost-effectiveness, ubiquity and open standards."

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks is a technology leader in high-performance Ethernet switching for cloud, data center and mobile networks.  Based in Santa Clara, CA, Extreme Networks has more than 6,000 customers in more than 50 countries.  For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.extremenetworks.com.

Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo and BlackDiamond are either trademarks or  registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are the property of their respective owners.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to performance, timing and features of the Extreme Networks products, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Extreme Networks, Inc.

Broadcom Extends Leadership with New StrataXGS Trident II Switch Series Optimized for Cloud-Scale Data Center Networks

Press release:

Broadcom Extends Leadership with New StrataXGS Trident II Switch Series Optimized for Cloud-Scale Data Center Networks

World's Highest Density, Feature-Rich 10/40GbE Switch with VXLAN Support Delivers 4X Network Virtualization Scale

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- 

News Highlights:

• World's first single chip to deliver more than 100 10GbE ports 
• 2X  greater forwarding density enables massive network infrastructure scaling
• Scales to support tens of thousands of server and virtual machine endpoints in multi-tenant environments
• Integrated SmartSwitch technologies deliver unprecedented innovation for cloud-scale networking

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120827/SF62960)

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced the StrataXGS® Trident II Series, a new line of Ethernet switching solutions optimized to meet the bandwidth, scalability and efficiency demands of cloud networking environments and mega data centers. Visitwww.broadcom.com to learn more.

Based on Broadcom's award winning StrataXGS architecture, the new 10/40 GbE series is the first to deliver more than 100 10GbE ports, a 4X increase in network virtualization scale and a 2X increase in forwarding and classification tables, enabling a significant return on investment on private and multi-tenant public cloud computing infrastructure connectivity.

Public and private cloud, Web 2.0 and other high-bandwidth data center applications are driving the need for higher scale and efficiency in the data center. Broadcom's StrataXGS Trident II Series delivers the most complete network switching feature set at the highest bandwidth and port density in the industry, enabling cost-effective and high performance data center build-out to an unprecedented number of server and storage endpoints, applications and users.  

Fast, Fat and Flat Networks with New SmartSwitch Technologies

The StrataXGS Trident II Series features new SmartSwitch technologies designed to break through traditional silicon and system-imposed performance barriers in cloud-scale networking. Increased performance needs for server-to-server and server-to-storage communication are driving the need for fast, fat and flat networks. Dynamic workload placement and the need for granular traffic visibility, load balancing and diagnostics are similarly driving more flexible software defined networks (SDN). The new SmartSwitch technologies include:

• Smart-NV: Delivers up to 4X greater scale, enabling SDN virtualization across both virtual and physical workloads at wire-speed. Enables cloud-scale network infrastructure virtualization using advanced Layer 2 over Layer 3 (L2oL3) network virtualization technologies such as NVGRE and VXLAN.
• Smart-Buffer: Delivers up to 5X higher packet buffer utilization and burst absorption performance using innovative traffic load-based intelligent and dynamic allocation schemes.
• Smart-Table: Delivers highest Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding scale with network topology-based profiling for maximum deployment flexibility.
• Smart-Hash: Eliminates polarization and load imbalances in fat-tree networks possessing heavy and diverse traffic patterns. Provides unprecedented network traffic visibility and diagnostics required by software defined networking. 

 Market Drivers

• Annual global data center IP traffic will reach 4.8 zettabytes by 2015¹
• Overall cloud IP traffic will grow at a CAGR of 66 percent from 2012 - 2015¹
  • Predicted to account for more than one-third (34 percent) of total data center traffic¹
• Public cloud workloads expected to grow at a 50 percent CAGR from 2012 - 2015²
• 40 percent of servers are virtualized today and are projected to reach 75 percent by 2015³
• Data center 10GE ports projected to grow at a 40 percent CAGR from 2012 -  2016⁴
  • 40GE ports projected to grow at a 130 percent CAGR of from 2012 - 2016⁴

StrataXGS Trident II Key Features

• Enables unprecedented 10/40GbE single chip switch configurations
• 100+ 10GbE ports with flexibility to support up to 32 40GbE ports
• First integrated switch delivers NVGRE and VXLAN L2oL3 transit and gateway switch technologies
• Supports industry's highest equal cost multipathing-based fat-tree networking scale on a single chip
• Greater FCoE network scale enabling true LAN/SAN convergence — up to 4X increase in forwarding entries
• High port density with direct attach to SFP+/QSFP modules and KR Backplanes
• Integrated IEEE 1588 1-step timing solution
  • Delivers 40 percent reduction in bill of material costs and 30 percent better phase accuracy

Availability

The StrataXGS Trident II Series includes multiple device options and is sampling this quarter. See Broadcom's full line of solutions for cloud-scale networking this week at VMworld® 2012, Moscone Center, San Francisco (booth #2107).

For ongoing Broadcom news visit our Newsroom, read our B-Connected Blog, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Ram Velaga, Vice President & General Manager, Core Switch, Broadcom "Our StrataXGS switch solutions are renowned throughout the industry for driving unsurpassed performance levels and cost metrics in data center, service provider and enterprise network environments. Our latest StrataXGS Trident II Series — a follow-on to the highly successful Trident series of single chip switch solutions — delivers unprecedented innovation with new features optimized to meet the performance, scalability and efficiency demands of both the traditional enterprise and emerging mega data centers, enabling a new era in cloud-scale and software defined networking."

Industry Quotes:

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

Christophe Metivier, Vice President, Manufacturing and Platform Engineering, Arista Networks"Arista has long partnered with Broadcom to deliver market leading switch products designed for scale, flexibility and ease of management that today's cloud networks require.  With the introduction of Broadcom's newest StrataXGS Trident II, we are excited about the integration of key features needed by today's software defined cloud networking, flexible load balancing, large table scale and higher switching capacities."

Liam Kiely, Vice President of R&D, Avaya Networking"Unprecedented demand for online content coupled with ever increasing cluster computing demands in the cloud has driven data centers to increasing scale, flexibility and levels of virtualization.  Avaya plans to power these next generation data centers with leading Avaya Ethernet switches utilizing Broadcom's new StrataXGS Trident II family."

Arpit Joshipura, Vice President, Dell"Broadcom continues to set the bar for state-of-the-art Ethernet switching technology with impressive 10GE scale with critical new features for the virtualized data center. Dell plans to be one of the first to offer customers the StrataXGS Trident II series that will enable next-generation Dell networking products designed for large-scale cloud and enterprise data centers."

Nadeem Zahid, Director of Product Management, Extreme Networks"We are seeing significant demand from next generation data centers that benefit from Extreme Networks' switches capable of virtualized, multi-tenant and flexible network architectures.  Broadcom technology has successfully powered Extreme's leading Ethernet switch portfolio to meet or exceed the stringent requirements and the new StrataXGS Trident II promises to again deliver."

Henry Cao (Cao Xiangying), Chief Operation Officer, Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd."Broadcom's Trident family of chips provides a superior comprehensive solution for H3C data center switches, and supports H3C's "Move to the Cloud" data center network strategy. We look forward to continuing our strategic collaboration in campus LAN and data center innovation to provide our customers with the advanced technology they need to deliver a faster and more reliable network experience."

Koichiro Seto, General Manager, Core Technology Development, Information System Product Division,Hitachi Cable"Broadcom continues to lead with impressive single-chip Ethernet switch silicon with ever increasing bandwidth with key features like VXLAN, Ethernet Fabric, Smart-NV and Smart-Hash technology to address the ever increasing needs of virtualized cloud scale networking. Hitachi Cable is excited to continue the close partnership with Broadcom's newest StrataXGS Trident II series of products to deliver market leading switch platforms for service provider, enterprise and data center markets."

End Users and Software Platform Vendors

Kitty Pang (Junying Pang), Chief Datacenter Architect, Alibaba Group"High density 10 and 40GbE switches with leading network virtualization, table scale, network visibility and congestion management features enable cloud operators to deliver next generation cloud services. The significantly high level of silicon integration and comprehensive data center feature set available in Broadcom's StrataXGS data center switch portfolio is being further enhanced by the StrataXGS Trident II switch series, enabling high price-performance values demanded by cloud scale networking."

Mansour Karam, Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Alliance, Big Switch Networks"As data centers grow at an unprecedented pace, customers are looking for solutions that enable choice and interoperability in their data centers. Big Switch Networks is pleased to collaborate with Broadcom on the StrataXGS Trident II series especially designed for data center network switch equipment. Interoperability and co-existence with virtual and physical switches is core to both companies' strategy around open network virtualization solutions."

Ross Ortega, Principal Program Manager, Windows Networking, Microsoft Corporation "Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Network Virtualization with NVGRE provides scalable multi-tenancy and provides new capabilities such as seamless workload mobility in multi-tenant and mega-datacenter environments. Connecting physical and virtualized workloads and legacy servers to new network virtualized services is equally important; the StrataXGS Trident II switch series implements NVGRE gateway capabilities to facilitate such connectivity, delivering cloud scale network virtualization."  

Allwyn Sequeira, CTO & Vice President, Cloud Networking & Security, VMware"Software-defined networking will provide organizations with greater flexibility and higher resource utilization in private, hybrid and public cloud deployments. Broadcom's SmartSwitch technology innovations and support for VXLAN in their StrataXGS Trident II switch series complements VMware's vision of software defined network virtualization."  

Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs)

Samuel Chang, President, Accton"Accton has partnered with Broadcom to develop a diverse, low cost, SDN capable switch portfolio optimized for virtualized private and public clouds.  With the release of the StrataXGS Trident II series, Accton will introduce the industry's first modular, 1RU switch capable of delivering up to 32 ports of 40GbE in a unique design that supports network processor modules and future higher speed interfaces to meet evolving data center requirements."

Harrison Chang, President, Alpha Networks, Inc."Alpha Networks has worked closely with Broadcom for the last 10+ years to proudly present a very comprehensive Ethernet switch portfolio that has achieved breakthroughs in the global market. Together with Broadcom, Alpha Networks will continue to pioneer Ethernet switch market trends providing a broad range of solutions and integration services and leading the world towards excellent networking."

Victor Cheng, CEO, Delta Networks Inc."DNI is committed to provide world class Ethernet switch products with a focus on quality, superior features, power efficiency and competitive cost.  Broadcom's latest StrataXGS Trident II switch series is the perfect switch silicon that exceeds our stringent requirements and we're excited to provide the first high density 96-Port 10G ToR Switch withBroadcom to offer best-in-class solutions to drive next generation cloud scale networks." 

Industry Analysts

Seamus Crehan, President, Crehan Research"Developments such as virtualization, cloud computing, and network consolidation have all contributed to unprecedented demands on datacenter switches. This is evidenced by the recent stellar growth in 10GbE and 40GbE datacenter switches where Broadcom's existing Trident series has been a major driver.  Now with the enablement of even greater port densities at higher speeds, in addition to important and exciting new datacenter features, system vendors, OEMs and cloud providers will be able to address ever-increasing datacenter network demands."

Sam Barnett, Directing Analyst, Data Center & Cloud, Infonetics Research"Service providers, telcos and Internet content providers around the world have embraced the cloud concept in earnest and are heavily investing in new infrastructure, building on their existing networks to add a range of cloud-based services. Network virtualization and switch forwarding features that can scale to support a large number of servers and users are among the top requirements. Broadcom's latest innovation for cloud-scale networks should further strengthen the company's position as a leading supplier in this space."

Jag Bolaria, Senior Analyst, Linley Group"Higher data rates, energy efficient design and cost pressures are paramount considerations for IT professionals as they scale the network to support the massive number of connected devices and bandwidth hungry applications in the cloud.Broadcom is undisputedly one of the overall leading suppliers of Ethernet switches and continues to deliver technology optimized for next generation networks."

Resources:
Cloud-Scale Networking Feature Page
¹ Cisco, Cloud Index, 2010 — 2015
² Morgan Stanley, Cloud Computing Takes Off, 2012
³ Gartner, Network World "Virtual Desktops are All the Rage", December 2011
⁴ Dell'Oro, Ethernet Switch Forecast, May 2012

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Networking 101: Quality of Service (QoS)

How well do you know QoS?  We all throw the term around but are we all truly comfortable with it?  Jimmy Ray breaks it down at the packet level and shares the one rule you must never forget.

Networking 101: Quality of Service (QoS)

ACI Worldwide Delivers Industry’s Most Powerful Retail Payments Solution with Newest Release of BASE24-eps

Latest Version Expands Offering and Enhances Market-leading, Multi-channel Payment Processing Platform

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

(New York, N.Y. – March 20, 2012) – ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: ACIW), a leading international provider of payments systems, today announced the availability of the latest version of BASE24-eps®, its integrated payment solution for acquiring, authenticating, switching, and authorizing financial transactions across multiple channels. Drawing on more than 35 years of experience in payments software, BASE24-eps 11.1 demonstrates ACI’s continued commitment to its flagship solution for retail banks, ATM and POS transaction processors and merchant acquirers worldwide.

BASE24-eps 11.1 extends ACI’s market leadership in supporting the global payments market with new connections to support local payment schemes and device types.  Among other benefits, the new version is designed to lower customers’ total cost of ownership while expanding choice, through its enhanced multi-platform architecture that supports various deployment options.  

David Morem, Executive Vice President, Global Products and Maintenance , ACI Worldwide said, “We’re extremely proud of the progress and latest improvements we’ve made with BASE24-eps. The product is now proven in some of the largest environments across a wide range of payment applications, delivering business flexibility without compromising the reliability, scalability and performance our customers expect.”

“In this age of rapid competitive, regulatory and technological changes, the payments business demands increasing flexibility,” notes Rick Oglesby, Senior Analyst, Aite Group.  “With BASE24-eps, ACI has made a significant investment in their payments platform in order to enable users to adapt rapidly to changing conditions domestically and across the global marketplace.”

Customers rely on BASE24-eps for performance and platform flexibility
“BASE24-eps is a proven, scalable solution enabling us to provide our customers with continuous product compliance with regulatory mandates, and adaptability for new market trends. BASE24-eps is recognised for its combination of reliability and flexibility and we are confident this will help us grow our business,” said Yves Perrachon, Head of Operations at Cedicam, the Crédit Agricole Group’s payments platform. “We look forward to the increased support for various platforms and interfaces in this latest release.”

“We are happy to see ACI continue to advance BASE24-eps in support of our payment needs,” said Ray Zapata, Senior Vice President, Frost Bank, one of the largest banks headquartered in Texas.  “BASE24-eps has set a high standard for performance, and we are pleased to take advantage of its platform flexibility.  We look forward to taking advantage of the new capabilities in this latest release.”

Key new features of BASE24-eps 11.1 include:

Flexibility with new platform and technology options – BASE24-eps 11.1 includes new support for DB2® on IBM System p®, which gives customers greater flexibility in their choice of platform and infrastructure, and enables them to leverage existing investments in technology and support resources.

Expanded global capabilities for ATM and POS acquiring – BASE24-eps 11.1 includes new support for NCR’s newest NDC standard message interface, extends EMV and key management support, and adds a new POS ISO acquiring interface. These capabilities enable customers to offer new features and services that increase revenues, through added transaction acquiring and processing flexibility. 

Regional enablement and new endpoints  – BASE24-eps 11.1 now supports 40 global and regional networks and provides enhanced EMV acquiring and key management support. 

BASE24 ® to BASE24-eps migration tools – BASE24-eps 11.1 offers enhanced data conversion support and enhanced ISO Host (1987) Interface features to further enable phased migrations from BASE24 to BASE24-eps.

BASE24-eps 11.1 is available immediately.  BASE24-eps continues to serve as ACI’s flagship solution for serving the most complex global payments needs.  BASE24-eps was named the “Most Innovative Financial Services Solution” at the 2011 Financial World Innovation Awards in December 2011.  

For more information visit: www.aciworldwide.com

About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments and banking for nearly 1700 financial institutions, retailers and processors around the world. Through our integrated suite of software products and hosted services, we deliver a broad range of solutions for electronic payments, transaction banking, mobile, branch, and voice banking, fraud detection and trade finance. To learn more about ACI and understand why we are trusted globally, please visitwww.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us onwww.paymentsinsights.com or on Twitter  @ACI_Worldwide.

Demo Thursday: Networking 101: What is an ASIC?

Demo Thursday: Networking 101: What is an ASIC?