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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / SEPTEMBER 15, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 37
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Breaking News -
Networking:
Foundry Offers Wireless And Wired
Infrastructure Products
Foundry Networks Inc, a performance and total solutions leader for
end-to-end
switching and routing, announced a wireless LAN strategy which seamlessly
integrates wireless into enterprise networking infrastructure and provides a
product roadmap which includes standards-based multimode access points, a rich
set of WiFi management applications, as well as a wireless LAN (WLAN) software
upgrade option for its industry leading FastIron Edge switch product line. In
addition to offering a compelling wireless solution to address enterprises'
mobility and productivity issues, Foundry's wireless strategy will provide
Foundry's more than 6,000 customers worldwide a simple migration path to
support wireless access as a part of their high performance network
infrastructure hence protecting their existing network investments.
Integrated Wireless And Wired Infrastructure Strategy
Foundry's Integrated Wireless and Wired Infrastructure strategy consists of
three components; the IronPoint 200 IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards-based multi-
mode full-featured access points, a SNMP-based IronPoint WiFi Management
application suite, as well as a Wireless LAN software upgrade option for
Foundry's popular FastIron JetCore modular, FastIron Edge and FastIron Edge
Power-over-Ethernet switches. By leveraging the latest 802.11 standards, these
products deliver a wireless LAN solution which offers strong security,
seamless mobility, centralized management, dynamic user policies and ease of
use, leading to lower long term cost of ownership.
To provide maximum deployment flexibility for customers who want to add
wireless capability to their network infrastructure, Foundry's Integrated
Wireless and Wired Infrastructure Strategy offers both a standalone full-
featured access point wireless solution which is appropriate for small/medium
size deployments, as well as an integrated intelligent access point with
wireless LAN switch solution which is better suited for large installations.
With the field upgradeability of both the IronPoint 200 access points and
FastIron Edge switches, the Foundry IronPoint strategy will offer customers a
smooth upgrade path as their wireless deployment grows.
"With the latest 802.11 standards, wireless local area networks (WLANs)
have
reached a new level of maturity," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with the
Yankee Group. "With many of the enterprise deployment barriers such as
security, roaming and management being addressed, network managers are now
beginning to add wireless LAN support to their network infrastructure.
Foundry's wireless strategy, which supports both standalone access points as
well as integrated access points and WLAN switches, offers one of the most
complete wireless solutions in the market today. With Foundry's well-regarded
L2/3 product set and credible presence in the enterprise market, their
entrance into the wireless LAN market is a significant event."
IronPoint 200 (IP200) Access Points
Central to the Foundry wireless strategy is the IronPoint 200 Access Point,
one of the industry's first dual band enterprise-class access point with
802.11a/b/g as well as 802.11a-Turbo support. The versatile IronPoint 200 can
be used as a standalone AP or, with a simple software upgrade, integrated with
a wireless- enabled switch. The IronPoint 200 access point is designed with
future proofing in mind, using a modular architecture, high performance
processor and large memory capacity for scalability. It can support up to 128
simultaneous users. It has a rich feature set including strong security,
802.11i security standard readiness, roaming, automatic channel assignment,
power level selection, multi-country radio frequency and channel
configuration.
IronView Network Manager (INM) -- IronPoint Edition
Foundry's IronView Network Manager (INM) software provides centralized
wireless access point management. By tightly integrating both wired and
wireless network management along with scalable security, Foundry offers one
of the most complete sets of integrated infrastructure management
applications. The IronPoint Edition of the Foundry INM management platform
helps overcome one of the major barrier of WLAN deployment in enterprises by
offering central AP configuration, backup and deployment, user policy and
access management, security configuration, traffic logging and reporting as
well as detailed, user-based traffic monitoring.
"We're excited to be an early user of the new wireless products with our
existing Foundry production network," said Richard Nelson, director of
information processing at the University of Southern California's Information
Sciences Institute (USC-ISI), a computing research center. "The ability to add
wireless management to existing Foundry edge switches through a software
upgrade is also interesting to us since we operate an extensive network of
Foundry switches for desktop connections, as well as Gigabit and 10G Ethernet
in the core. We have found that wireless access-point management can be
lacking from other early vendors in this space because vendor software cannot
easily manage both wired and wireless networks. The ability to comprehensively
manage wireless and wired LAN gear in one system is ideal."
Wireless-Enabled FastIron Edge (FES) Switches
Foundry's high performance FastIron Edge Layer 2/3 switches can be software
upgraded to enable integrated wireless LAN capability. Already known as one of
top edge switches in the industry with advanced Layer 2 features,
comprehensive security features such as 802.1x, sFlow wire-speed traffic
monitoring, QoS for converged applications, rate limiting, built-in redundant
power supplies, IEEE 802.3af standards-based Power over Ethernet, and Layer 3
upgradeability, the Foundry FES switches with wireless LAN upgrade will be the
ideal switch platform for enterprise wireless LAN deployments. The wireless-
enabled FES switches will provide seamless wireless LAN support including
Layer 2/3 mobility, enhanced monitoring and reporting with sFlow, secure Web
guest authentication, IPsec/VPN pass-through for existing VPN support,
enhanced authentication, security and user policy control as well as enhanced
AP management. The seamlessly integrated solution of IronPoint 200 access
points and wireless-enabled FES switches will meet the requirements of any
enterprise wireless deployments.
"With our Integrated Wireless and Wired Infrastructure strategy and
Wireless
LAN products, Foundry will offer a compelling total enterprise network
infrastructure solution," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager
of Foundry's Enterprise Business Unit. "Wireless capability is the necessary
add- on to the overall enterprise network infrastructure. Our wireless
solution will seamlessly integrate with our complete line of enterprise
switching and network management products to leverage our competency and
leadership in the industry."
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