The Completely Evolved Mesh
MIDDLE EAST, April 6, 2011 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced its new data center switching solution blueprint for enterprises. This unique solution provides a complete data center switching fabric that extends the boundaries of the data center through virtualization of the network with an innovative “mesh” architecture design. This reduces costs and allows an enterprise to leverage its IT resources and optimize application delivery to employees across sites and devices.
Leveraging market leading scalability, low latency and low power consumption, enterprises can move beyond costly client server computing by managing applications as a service across a range of data center deployment models, including multi-site data centers, dedicated departmental or workgroup virtual data centers, and hybrid environments that can integrate service provider offerings. With its application services enabling approach, Alcatel-Lucent opens the door for enterprises to leverage cloud service offerings from service providers to further extend the business value of the solution.
“Network infrastructure is becoming more complicated as new applications, new devices, data center virtualization and cloud computing become requirements for the enterprise,” said Zeus Kerravala, VP and Distinguished Research Fellow, Yankee Group. “Enterprises need an infrastructure that is capable of monitoring and delivering these applications in real-time as if they were a service with low latency and a high quality user experience.”
Alcatel-Lucent’s data center switching solution delivers two architecture breakthroughs: the data center “mesh” and the “pod.” Virtualization in the data center requires enterprises to optimize server-to-server traffic while striving to reduce costs. Alcatel-Lucent’s “pod” architecture addresses this need with the new OmniSwitch 6900 by delivering a highly dense solution that allows enterprises to directly connect top-of-rack switches without relying on a core switch to carry server-to-server traffic.
Providing the ability to connect data center pods together across multiple sites, Alcatel-Lucent’s ground-breaking “mesh” architecture delivers a complete switching fabric that can bring together more than 14,000 server 10Gig ports with only two core switches, delivering end-to-end latency of less than five microseconds and unmatched resiliency.
Building on its Application Fluent Network vision and market leading OmniSwitch 10K Modular LAN Chassis, an enterprise core switch announced last October, Alcatel-Lucent’s data center switching solution blueprint also features the virtual network profile (vNP), which captures application prioritization, switch provisioning, quality of service (QoS), and security requirements. The vNP ensures the network fluently understands and dynamically controls what is needed for application performance, including automating the movement of virtual machines within the fabric. Enterprises benefit from streamlined operations and reduced costs.
“The rise of virtualization has made data center switching a critical piece of an IT strategy for the enterprise,” said Michel Emelianoff, Vice President and General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Networks. “As we build on our Application Fluent Network vision, our new data center switching solution is empowering enterprises to set up a virtualized network for their data centers, allowing users to easily take advantage of real-time applications from any location across any device.”
