SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 23, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Foundry Networks(r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, announces innovations for enterprise networking laying the foundation for a new generation of advanced applications. The new offerings address a range of important issues for the IT manager, including cost-effective network expansion at the network's edge, the delivery of high-bandwidth applications to mobile users, support for higher-powered Ethernet endpoints, such as 802.11n access points and video phones and the transition to IPv6, the next generation IP protocol. The product announcements are summarized below and presented in more detail in separate press releases.
"With more than eleven years of continuous network advancements, Foundry remains focused on innovation leadership and building advanced customer solutions," said Bobby Johnson, president and chief executive officer for Foundry Networks. "Foundry's new products continue to advance switching, routing and wireless solutions, providing enterprises a competitive advantage by enabling new applications and services and lowering the total cost of ownership, effectively protecting and preparing their network investment for future innovation."
New Stackable Switches Provide Cost-effective Solutions for Scaling the Enterprise Edge
Foundry is introducing new stackable models of the popular FastIron GS and LS families of compact 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE)-ready access switches. The FastIron GS-STK and FastIron LS-STK models deliver the benefits of "pay-as-you grow" scalability, the ease of single switch operations and the low initial cost of a compact access switch. These new switches will address the needs of network operators looking for a scalable edge architecture that features the cost and size advantages of compact edge switches. The new FastIron GS-STK and FastIron LS-STK switches will be available in summer 2008.
New IronPoint Mobility Products Bring the Benefits of High Speed Access to Mobile Users
Foundry is extending the reach and benefits of high-capacity network access with new models of its IronPoint Mobility access points. The IronPoint Mobility AP300 family of access points is compliant with IEEE 802.11n Draft 2.0 delivering data throughput up to 300 Mbps. Foundry is also introducing the modular IronPoint Mobility MC5000 to provide enterprise network operators a flexible and scalable mobility solution that can support as many as 1,000 access points and tens of thousands of mobile users and devices. The IronPoint Mobility AP300 access points and MC5000 controller will be available June 2008.
FastIron PoE Plus Modules Boost the Power to New IP Devices
PoE Plus is an emerging standard for power delivery over Ethernet cable providing approximately 25 watts of power to Ethernet-attached devices. This is nearly twice the power of the current IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet standard. Ethernet switches offering Power over Ethernet (PoE) have been an important addition to the enterprise, providing a cost-effective and efficient means for powering attached endpoints such as IP phones, IP cameras and wireless LAN access points. New IP devices requiring higher power such as pan-tilt-zoom surveillance cameras, point of sale terminals, video phones and 802.11n access points are spurring the need for PoE Plus. Foundry will introduce PoE Plus modules for its FastIron SuperX/SX family of modular enterprise switches. The first of these modules will be available in the summer 2008 and will support forty-eight 10/100/1000 Mbps PoE Plus ports. This module will be compliant with IEEE 802.3at draft 3.0 specifications.
New IronWare Software Release and Upgrade Enable IPv6 Routing across the Enterprise
Enterprise network operators are anticipating and beginning to prepare for a network migration to IPv6, the next generation IP protocol. To help facilitate this migration, Foundry offers an IPv6-ready solution from the network's edge to core. With the introduction of IronWare Release 4.1.00 for the FastIron SuperX/SX and FastIron Edge X series switches, IPv6 hardware-ready models will be upgradeable to support IPv6 routing and IPv6-to-IPv4 tunneling. The IPv6 routing upgrade delivers a rich set of dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 routing services allowing network operators to gracefully implement and transition to IPv6 as required. IronWare Release 4.1.00 software and the IPv6 upgrade for the FastIron X Series switches will be available in May 2008.
FastIron XE Series Sets New Benchmark for High Capacity Edge Routing
The new FastIron Edge XE (FES-XE) Series boasts the industry's leading IPv4 and IPv6 hardware routing capacity in a compact routing switch. The FES-XE Series provides large enterprise organizations, government networks, universities and service providers a highly scalable routing platform that can be used in complex routing configurations and provides a migration path to IPv6. The FES-XE Series support expansive routing capacities scaling to 512,000 IPv4 routes and 64,000 IPv6 routes in hardware. For route distribution and calculation, the FES-XE routing switch can support up to 1,000,000 BGPv4 routing entries. The FES-XE is future-ready providing users with wire-speed IPv4 and IPv6 routing, including IPv6-to-IPv4 tunnels to facilitate network transition. The FES-XE Series switches will be available in May 2008.
These new offerings extend Foundry's intelligent enterprise architecture, integrating network infrastructure, mobility, embedded security and unified management into an advanced, future-ready solution for the evolving enterprise.
"Our products are at the heart of our customers' information networks. By offering cost-effective scalability at the network's edge, and integrating emerging technologies including IEEE 802.11n, PoE Plus and IPv6, we can help network operators advance their infrastructure and support new applications," said Bob Schiff, vice president and general manager for Foundry's Enterprise Business Unit. "Our announcements today reinforce our commitment to delivering innovative and advanced solutions, enabling new capabilities that will give our customers a competitive edge."
About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro and core routers. Foundry's customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit www.foundrynet.com.
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The foregoing may contain "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's current information and beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events made by management. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements by executives or spokespeople regarding Foundry's product positioning features, capabilities and potential plans. The forward-looking statements in this press release are only predictions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Furthermore, no statements made by Foundry Networks, Inc. ("Foundry") in this press release, or information contained herein, may be deemed to constitute either an amendment of an existing agreement or an implied new commitment, promise or legal obligation by Foundry to develop or deliver any specific product, feature or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any product, feature, or functionality described herein remains at Foundry's sole discretion.