Plexxi Announces New Network Switch Series to Power the Next Era of IT

NASHUA, N.H., July 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Plexxi, a pioneer of next-generation networking products, today announced the launch of its Plexxi Switch 2 Series to enable the creation of networks for the next era of IT emphasizing applications over infrastructure as the main priority. The groundbreaking Plexxi Switch 2 Series consolidates the network into a single tier, optimized for east/west application traffic, while eliminating the need for multiple switch types found in traditional leaf/spine architectures. As a result, the Switch 2 Series delivers unprecedented Capex (less hardware and cabling) and Opex (automation and operational efficiency) savings while tightly aligning to application and business priorities.  

"In the era of the 3rd Platform, especially as cloud proliferates, enterprises and developers want to focus on their applications and services, not on the underlying network infrastructure," said Brad Casemore, Research Director Data Center Networks, IDC. "Accordingly, networking vendors must provide an agile, dynamic network infrastructure that features application-oriented programmability.  By focusing on the needs of the application rather than those of the network, Plexxi seeks to provide an application-centric approach to network infrastructure suited to the demands of the next era of IT."

Plexxi's system level approach to networking leverages three key innovation pillars, Plexxi Connect (application integration ecosystem), Plexxi Control (dynamic network fabric fitting/rendering, centralized visualization and management) and Plexxi Switches to deliver next generation data center agility.  Based on the needs of individual data and application workloads, the Switch 2 Series leverages Plexxi Control innovation to dynamically change the network topology in real time, intelligently forwarding traffic and delivering needed network capacity.  Integration with VMware's vSphere through Plexxi Connect streamlines operations by establishing policies that orchestrate network behavior and converge application and network management into a single workflow enabling the network to keep pace with the speed of business.

Plexxi's technology allows enterprises and government agencies to move beyond the static networks of the past to create the industry's first converged, agile and dynamic network fabric, lowering capital and operating expenses, reducing network complexity, improving security and increasing productivity.

"We've entered a new era of IT in which virtualization, hyperconvergence, Big Data and scale-out applications have radically transformed the landscape of IT.  Storage and compute have evolved rapidly over the last decade, but networking has remained unchanged." said Rich Napolitano, CEO of Plexxi. "Traditional network architectures were static and defined by the physical cabling.  Applications were poured in and you hoped the network could support them.  In today's world, you need to start with the data and applications in mind, and dynamically engineer the network around them.  That is why we built the Plexxi Switch 2 Series.  They allow organizations to meet the demands of the next era of IT with a network that is more agile, scalable, and intelligent than ever before."

The Plexxi Switch 2 Series includes the following options, allowing customers to seamlessly scale-out their network in a building block approach, as the organization requires:

• The Entry Series (2e), a low-cost, high-density platform for Big Data and agile data centers with 48 access ports, 6 QSFP fabric ports and 240 Gbps of fabric capacity.
• The Performance Series (2s, 2sp), a high-density platform for Big Data, agile data centers and distributed cloud environments with 72 access ports, 4 dedicated Flexx™ ports and 2 LightRail® optical fabric interconnect ports delivering   240 Gbps of fabric capacity.
• The Performance Plus Series (2, 2p), a high-density platform for Big Data, agile data centers and distributed cloud environments with 48 access ports, 28 dedicated Flexx ports and 4 LightRail optical fabric interconnect ports delivering 480 Gbps of multidimensional fabric capacity.

For technical details about the Plexxi Switch 2 Series, visit here. The Plexxi Switch 2 Series is available immediately with pricing starting at $25,000 excluding software and integration licenses. The Switch 2e is available immediately with volume shipment availability beginning in September.

Quotes from the industry:

"Our customers require dynamic, scalable and distributed data center networks to keep up with today's exponential growth of applications and network data. Plexxi enables CloudGov to provide our customers a fundamentally new type of automated network that dynamically shapes network capacity to deliver performance, agility and significant cost savings."  -- Mike Gregory, founder and CEO of CloudGov Technologies, an IT solutions provider to government and commercial markets.

"We've realized our vision of connecting five data centers together with a dynamic fabric that adapts to support the needs of our virtualized applications." – Michail Bletsas, director of computing, MIT Media Lab.

"A top market driver for SDN is automation via programmability to meet the constantly changing requirements of today's application workloads. Plexxi provides a unique solution starting with an application driven approach driving a single tier, optically meshed fabric where the bandwidth between nodes can be dynamically changed to support the needs of individual applications. Customers can benefit from a multi-personality data center; where the fabric can be tuned by day to support business applications such as virtual desktop and by night for data backups and analytics." – Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., Research Director, Data Center, Cloud and SDN, IHS.

About Plexxi Inc.
Plexxi is a pioneer of next-generation networking products and solutions that enable organizations to operate at the speed of business. Plexxi's products – Plexxi Connect, Plexxi Control and Plexxi Switches – and market solutions create an optimized application environment for agile data centers, scale-out applications like Big Data, and distributed cloud environments. Headquartered in Nashua, N.H., Plexxi has raised $48+ million in venture financing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Northbridge Venture Partners. Plexxi, LightRail and Flexx ports are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of Plexxi Inc. in jurisdictions around the world. Other company names or product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.  For more information, visit www.plexxi.com or follow us on Twitter @PlexxiInc. 

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SOURCE Plexxi

Related Links

http://www.plexxi.com

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