LANCAST Inc., the leading provider of high-quality network connectivity solutions, has introduced the Intelligent Media Converter 7500 - an innovative, management-ready, chassis-based media conversion solution. Unique in its open modular architecture and scalable design, the Intelligent Media Converter has transformed media conversion management and raised industry expectations in terms of the manageability of this device class.
Intelligent Media Conversion Reflects New Industry Trend
In today`s rapidly evolving networks, media conversion products are consistently being more widely deployed in order to take advantage of new network topologies while preserving investments in existing networks. Because media converters are found everywhere, including at critical junctures in the network, the reliability and fault-resilience of these devices has become increasingly important - so important that many businesses have implemented redundancy in their media converters to ensure greater network uptime. But even given the critical position of these devices in the network, they were essentially unmanaged until now and represented a "black hole" in the management of the enterprise network.
"With the introduction of the Intelligent Media Converter 7500, LANCAST has created a new generation of products. Network managers have long anticipated a `lights out` data center, but this simply wasn`t possible with virtually unmanaged devices sitting at critical junctures in the network. With this next-generation media converter, a major management obstacle has been removed, once and for all," notes Anne Murphy, vice president of marketing at LANCAST.
Fully Managed On-Demand Networking
LANCAST`s `managed network-on-demand` facility, unique to the 7500`s intelligent "redundant twister" modules, provides the user with a choice of operational modes: dynamic recovery mode and network select mode. Dynamic recovery mode allows the user to add a new level of managed fault resilience and automatic, transparent recovery to ensure continuous network connectivity and dramatically increase uptime. When the connections are configured in network-select mode, users are able to more effectively redirect traffic and network access. Dedicated networks can be dynamically created for data backups, network access can be selectively limited, or bandwidth bottlenecks can be eliminated.
Intelligent Media Converter 7500 Feature Highlights
The Intelligent Media Converter 7500 is a "management-ready" converter unit that provides a fully managed, grow-at-your-own pace solution to help companies support the exploding growth of network users. The scalability in design of the chassis allows the addition of network management and additional connectivity options at any time. The chassis allows network managers to mix and match, in any combination required, intelligent "twister" and "redundant twister" media conversion modules and provides a migration path to integrate future conversion technologies.
All modules in the Intelligent Media Converter are hot-swappable and front-loaded. Online maintenance upgrades are supported, eliminating costly network downtime. Load-sharing, hot-swappable power supplies are available to ensure seamless and non-disruptive auto-failover, completely transparent to the user. Preventative maintenance is supported through the ability of the Intelligent Media Converter`s management module to provide early detection of environmental problems, as well as operational and functional alarm conditions.
The management-ready Intelligent Media Converter enables users to add management at their own pace and when their budgets permit. A powerful, yet easy-to-use, graphical user interface (GUI) to access the management statistics is provided by LANCAST`s NetBeacon management software. NetBeacon operates as a standalone, JAVA-based application or integrated with HP OpenView. Because the management module is implemented in SNMP, the Intelligent Media Converter can be monitored or managed through any SNMP management station.
Users need scalability in their network devices. By providing the marketplace with an intelligent, management-ready media conversion solution, LANCAST empowers network managers to control the connectivity and conversion devices in their networks - not just servers, hubs and routers. They now have the option to decide when and how to add reliability and manageability through a combination of affordable, scalable hardware and software solutions.
Share
