Adds Foundry high-performance networking solution; expects to save in power and support costs in the future.

Foundry Networks, Inc., a solutions provider for end-to-end switching and routing, today announced that NTT Europe Online, a data center services provider, has selected its data center switching solution, the BigIron RX Series, as part of a data center upgrade in Paris and Madrid. The company states that in this multi-phase project, NTT Europe Online will provide its customers with switching capabilities that support complex network infrastructures, managed services, hosted applications and cope with huge volumes of event-driven online traffic.

The company avers that its BigIron RX switches support mini-RJ21 connectivity for up to 1,536 GbE ports per system, resulting in a lower number of switches needed in an 'end of row' design than would be traditionally used in a similar set-up by other vendors. Deploying its solution means NTT Europe Online will use only 10 switches, compared to 130 using equipment by competitors in a five row, 12 rack (per row) installation, for a substantial decrease in support and ongoing operational costs, it claims. The company adds that  the BigIron RX switches incorporate the latest advances in switch architecture, system resilience, Quality of Service and security in a family of modular chassis that set benchmarks for price/performance, scalability and total cost of ownership.

"NTT Europe Online is a leader in data center services, dedicated to providing the best service in the industry," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager for Foundry's High-End and Service Provider Systems Business Unit. "It deals with huge volumes of traffic on a daily basis and Foundry is helping to underpin its business offering. We are pleased to be an integral networking solution for NTT Europe Online's infrastructure."

"We wanted to upgrade our network and future proof it for the next five to seven years, so it was essential that we had high-speed Ethernet connectivity," said Craig Pennington, vice president of operations, NTT Europe Online. "Reducing power consumption was another consideration and, with costs increasing year-on-year, we wanted to manage this as much as possible. Foundry really won out on reduced power consumption. Many vendors make claims about how much power and space they can save, but Foundry really delivers on its promise. Based on the savings we have already seen, we are forecasting an overall saving of GBP 380,000 in power and support costs at both data centers over the next five years."

Pennington continued, "In addition to saving on energy, the BigIron RX switches also allow us to save on physical space in the data center. The nature of our business means that all equipment we have in our data centers must be revenue generating equipment."