New Networking Wares On Tap At NetWorld+Interop

Several networking and videoconferencing vendors are slated to unveil new products at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas this week that they hope will help channel partners target new markets.

Adtran is expanding its portfolio with the launch of NetVanta 5000, a new line of access routers that supports dual T3 circuits. The new product line carries a list price that's about half the cost of comparable products from market-leading Cisco Systems, said Rob Snyder, marketing manager at Adtran, Huntsville, Ala.

"For our channel, gross profit margin is maintained even though our products are selling at a lower list price," Snyder said.

The NetVanta 5305 chassis is priced at $6,995. A single T3 module is priced at $1,895. An optional IPsec VPN module is also available.

3Com, Marlborough, Mass., plans to launch its Baseline Switch 2816-SFP Plus, a configurable unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet switch. Aimed at small businesses, the switch includes four "dual personality" ports capable of supporting copper or fiber connectivity and provides support for Quality of Service and VLANs.Radware plans to expand the capabilities of its CertainT 100 SSL accelerator by adding Web compression and HTTP multiplexing features. Offloading such CPU-intensive processes can improve server performance and boost content delivery rates by as much as 40 percent, said Michael Rothschild, senior manager of product manager at Radware, Mahwah, N.J. Available now, pricing for the CertainT 100 starts at $8,000.

Separately, Radware this week will also join Enterasys Networks' Secure Networks Certified Partner Program. Through the partnership, Enterasys has certified Radware's FireProof Security Application Switch for interoperability with its own Dragon Intrusion Defense product line. Enterasys also aims to provide best practices to solution providers implementing the two product lines.Enterasys at N+I plans to introduce new functionality in its Matrix N-series switches that moves security features deeper into the network. With version 4.0 of Enterasys' operating software, the switches can identify, authenticate and manage traffic from individual users even if they are placed at the distribution layer instead of the network edge. This gives customers with multivendor infrastructure environments access to Enterasys security features without having to rip and replace their existing edge switches.

"You're not going to go into a lot of Cisco shops and say, 'We've got this great technology. Rip out what you have now,'" said Steve Thorpe, president of Adaptive Communications, a solution provider in Portsmouth, N.H. "It's a different story if we ask them if they would like to add [the security features] to their existing network," he said.

Enterasys, Andover, Mass., is also rolling out NetSight Atlas Automated Security Manager (ASM), a new module for its Dynamic Intrusion Response solution. ASM links with Enterasys' Dragon Intrusion Defense System. Together, the products can identify security threats and locate the device on the network that sourced the threat, quarantining infected traffic without disrupting other users.

Available now, pricing for ASM starts at $17,000. N-series switches are also now shipping with the new operating software. Free upgrades are available for customers with maintenance contracts.The company has also named a new executive to head up Americas channel sales.

Polycom, Pleasanton, Calif., plans to launch its new V500 videoconferencing end point aimed at small and midsize businesses. The set-top unit includes an integrated camera and microphone and plugs into any television. The unit supports encryption, 14KHz wideband audio and the new H.264 video compression standard, which can deliver twice the video quality of its predecessor without increasing bandwidth usage. The IP version of the V500 is priced at around $2,000, about $1,000 less than the company's lowest-priced conference room system. A version that supports both IP and ISDN is priced at around $3,000.

In addition, the company is launching a partnership to bundle the V500 with managed services from AT&T.

Article appears courtesy of CRN.