LAS VEGAS -- Interop -- After 15 months in the lab, Foundry Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) today unveiled its new RX family of chassis-based Layer 2 to Layer 3 switches and took the wraps off a range of new SSL VPN devices at Interop today.
The RX family includes the 4 rack-unit-high RX-4, the 7 rack-unit-high RX-8 and the top-end RX-16, which is 14 rack units high. The RX-4 is aimed at distribution switching and routing whereas the RX-8 is being touted as a technology for 10-Gbit/s aggregation and backbone routing. Up at the high-end, the RX-16 is targeted at the enterprise core and high-performance computing.
The San Jose, Calif.-based vendor is adding the new boxes to its previous range of switches, namely the BigIron 4000, 8000, and 15000 devices, with the RX-16 usurping its existing high-end appliance, the MG-8.
The RX launch represents an overhaul of Foundry's core switching architecture. We havent had fully redundant switching fabric before, says Bob Schiff, Foundrys director of marketing.
It's a step in the right direction, says Stan Schuchart, senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure at Current Analysis. They really didnt have the redundancy story that they should have had, and the RX fixes that.
