Enterasys SecureStack C3 offers cost-effective IPv6 support, 10Gb Ethernet connectivity

Enterasys Networks, the Secure Networks Company, today announced the new Enterasys SecureStack C3 designed for Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) access at the network edge.

Advanced QOS features automatically discover, classify and prioritise voice, video and data applications such as IP telephony, HD video conferencing and business intelligence analytics. Redundant power supplies ensure availability while standards-based IEEE 802.3af power over Ethernet (POE) options support network devices that require external power, such as wireless access points, VOIP telephones, and IP security cameras.

Unique What You Need Is What You Get (WYNIWYG) identity-based policies assure service level agreement (SLA) requirements and proactively prevent security incidents based on user and application privileges that ensure only the right users have access to the right information from the right place at the right time. These role-based policies align network resource utilisation with business goals and priorities without impacting performance or reliability.

"The new 10Gb offerings from Enterasys clearly show the growth of the 10Gb Ethernet market and Enterasys's commitment to that market," said Steven J Schuchart Jr, Principal Analyst at Current Analysis. "Enterasys is delivering greater capacity with embedded policy-based security and QOS with no sacrifice in performance."

The new SecureStack C3 products are complemented by the Enterasys Dragon Multi-Gigabit Intrusion Detection and Prevention appliances, and the recently announced Distributed Intrusion Prevention solution. The intelligent, automated integration of the new security-enabled C3 switching/routing hardware with the Enterasys Dragon and NetSight software delivers open architecture network access control (NAC) and enables enterprises to predict and prevent threats and vulnerabilities by pinpointing the root-cause of network security incidents.

"The new SecureStack C3 is simply the best combination of wire-speed performance, advanced security and management features we have evaluated - at a lower cost than the previous C2 stackable offerings from Enterasys," said Fritz B"utikofer, Chief of the Network Group of IT Services of the University of Bern. "If you want the industry's best support, rock-solid reliability and advanced security that is very affordable - you should talk to Enterasys. They deliver on their promises and are easy to work with."

The new Enterasys SecureStack C3 provides high port density in a single rack unit footprint and is environmentally friendly by design. The C3 stackable switch supports a maximum of 384 triple-speed copper ports with POE, 192Gb SFP fibre ports, and 16 XFP 10GbE connections. IPv4, IPv6 and IP Multicast routing is supported along with virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) and equal cost multi-path (ECMP) topology protocol. Wire-speed performance of 571.2 million packets per second throughput and 1.54 terabits per second of bandwidth is maintained even when advanced L2/L3/L4 rate limiting, packet filtering or security quarantine features are enabled. Eight hardware-based QOS priority queues are available per port, with support for 16 000 Layer 2 MAC addresses and 1024 VLANs. SNMPv3 provides secure network management capabilities.

The Enterasys SecureStack C3:

* Identifies and classifies incoming traffic;
* Discovers attached users, applications and devices (LLDP-MED);
* Authenticates them using 802.1X, Web or MAC authentication;
* Enforces priority or security policies through wire-speed rate limiting, filtering or forwarding decisions; and
* Leverages industry-standard IPv4/IPv6 routing, VRRP, ECMP, LACP, RSTP, SNMPv3, RMON, and IP Multicast (IPMC) support.

Enterasys NetSight management software avoids the need for manual reconfiguration every time there is a move, add or change. Define the policies once, and Enterasys keeps up with all the mobility, expansion and modification automatically. The network access control (NAC) privileges for an authenticated user or device are enforced dynamically, regardless of wired or wireless connectivity. The end result is high-performance capacity increases that leverage the multi-vendor management and embedded security operational expertise of Enterasys over the past 25 years.