Product News: The latest networking products for the week commencing 18 June, 2008

Nortel ERS 4548GT-PWR

Nortel's Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) 4548GT-PWR is based on gigabit Ethernet technology and is designed to be stackable, scalable and economical. Nortel claims it provides the resiliency, security and convergence-readiness required by application-driven and constantly changing enterprise networks. The 4548GT-PWR delivers 48 10/100/1000BaseT with Power over Ethernet plus four shared SFP ports for high density gigabit to desktop converged deployments. The switch can mix and match with other ERS 4500s in the same stack, with functionality enabled by Secure Always On (SAO) access to mission critical applications. Its features list includes Customizable Auto-negotiation Advertisements (CANA), Multi-Link Trunking (MLT), Distributed Multi-Link Trunking, distributed Link Aggregation Groups, Virtual Link Aggregation Control Protocol (VLACP), Nortel Multiple Spanning Tree groups, a single IP address for stack management, resilient fail-safe stacking, Automatic Unit Replacement (configuration and software), Automatic Detection Automatic Confi guration (ADAC), DSCP-based Recognition, Marking and Recolouring, Ingress and Egress Port Mirroring, Broadcast and Multicast Rate limiting per port. The switch supports SSHv2 and SNMPv3 secure management.

Distributed by: Westcon Group and Anixter

RRP: on application

GarrettCom Magnum DX900

This industrial router from GarrettCom enables plant engineers and IT departments to link remote, harsh-environment industrial sites to central systems and operations centres using digital WAN services. The Magnum DX900 supports public or private digital facilities, frame relay services and new MPLS-based IP services. It is suitable for small- to intermediate-sized locations such as power distribution substations, transportation systems and water/waste water and pipeline operations. The DX900 operates in extreme temperatures from -40 to 85º C without fans or open venting. The router has rigorous electrical surge and electromagnetic immunity, meeting strenuous specifications for power substations. Conformal coating is available for deployments in high humidity or harsh atmospheres such as refineries and pipeline operations. The DX900 is a multifunction product that integrates digital WAN access, IP routing, serial-IP terminal services, Ethernet switching and firewall features in a single product and over a single digital WAN access facility.

Distributed by: PowerCorp

RRP: $3750

Riverbed Optimisation System 5.0

RiOS (Riverbed Optimisation System) 5.0 is the software platform supporting Riverbed's Steelhead appliances. With RiOS 5.0, the vendor adds to its existing HTTP and HTTPS acceleration capabilities by improving the performance of enterprise Web applications including SAP, NetWeaver, Oracle, PeopleSoft/JD Edwards, Microsoft and Siebel CRM, SharePoint and Outlook Web Access. Riverbed claims the optimisation system helps reduce chattiness and delay often associated with enterprise Web-based applications and offers users additional performance improvements of up to 10 times. RiOS 5.0 also delivers acceleration capabilities for Oracle 11i applications running in HTTP mode. This acceleration builds on the existing RiOS support for Oracle 11i Jinitiator socket mode optimisation and targets the Oracle E-Business suite of applications, particularly forms traffic and reporting, as well as other application operations. With RiOS 5.0, Riverbed claims it has enhanced the implementation of SSL acceleration, with new functionality for ease-of-setup and management. Other security enhancements include IPsec functionality.

Distributed by: Riverbed

RRP: on application