High-speed 10 Gigabit Copper switching for small to mid-sized organizationsHigh-speed 10 Gigabit Copper switching for small to mid-sized organizations

Overview

Previously the preserve of the enterprise space, small to medium sized organisations can now take advantage of cost effective 10GbE switching solutions to support high speed networking requirements.

NETGEAR is the first networking provider to deliver 10 Gigabit copper (10GBase-T) switching solutions spanning the Unmanaged Plus, Smart and Fully Managed categories.

  • Unmanaged Plus, Smart and Fully Managed 10GbE Copper switches
  • Leverage existing Cat5e copper cabling and above investments
  • Workgroup aggregation, network backbone, top of rack deployment capabilities
  • Cost-effective support for virtualized environments
  • 8 port 10GbE Copper switch pricing from circa $1000*

Ground breaking performance and increased choice of deployment options

To date, 10GbE connectivity has often involved costly fiber based technology as the predominant way to support high-speed access to the backbone of the network, as well as virtualized server, storage and Data Center environments. The advent of more affordable 10GBase-T Copper solutions has seen growing adoption in recent years, but is now set to take off with advances having been made in reducing copper latency and power consumption disadvantages, compared to Optics. For example, Netgear’s latest advances in hardware and software engineering have delivered comparable power consumption rates between the 10GbE all fiber based XSM7224S and the newly released M7100 series comprising of the new 10GbE all Copper based XSM7224.

NETGEAR latest additions to the 10GbE stable include three new switches with fixed configuration 10 Gigabit ports along with ground-breaking price points.

  • ProSafe 8-port 10 Gigabit Plus Switch (XS708E) for small organisations
  • ProSafe 12-port 10 Gigabit Smart Switch (XS712T) for small and medium-sized organizations
  • ProSafe 24-Port 10 Gigabit Copper M7100 series Managed Switch (XSM7224) designed for enterprise and campus networks supporting up to 500 employees

*Due to regional variances, actual street prices should be confirmed with your local authorised Netgear reseller

Why 10GbE Copper?

Realise high-speed network growth

10GbE is no longer a platform that only large enterprises can afford. The increasing adoption of 10GbE Copper NIC adapters by server and storage vendors is opening up the opportunity for 10GbE connectivity deployment for customers of all sizes. Now is the time to deliver reliable, affordable and simple 10GbE networking connectivity beyond the core of the network using Netgear’s trusted ProSafe Switching family. 10GbE copper price points are also more attractive than ever before - reaching similar price points as Gigabit solutions from a price per Gbit/s perspective.

Leverage existing infrastructure copper cabling investments

Customers who have an existing network infrastructure running Cat 6A or 7 cabling will benefit from the copper wiring being of a higher grade than that of Cat 5. Such networks can support higher bandwidth requirements that 10G Copper allows up to 100m using RJ45 connectors. Cat 5e and 6 networks can also leverage and benefit from 10G Copper, but over shorter distances of up to 45 and 55m respectively. Backwards compatibility with 100M/bit and Gigabit networks allows for a cost effective and simpler upgrade path to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Extend support for converged environments

The network performance bottleneck caused by the growing demand for bandwidth to support intensive new applications, combined with the proliferation of data replication and the widespread adoption of server and storage virtualization in small and medium sized networks, is driving the deployment of 10 Gigabit solutions for network connectivity. The increase in video and mobile data alone is placing limitations on Gigabit networks as more devices, users and content fight for traffic prioritisation. With data essentially doubling every two years, over 90 percent of servers are now shipping with 10GbE ports and delivering an affordable price point for SMBs, as well as enterprises with evolving networking requirements.

10GbE Copper comes of age

The 10GBase-T standard has been available for upwards of 7 years. 2012 was seen as an inflection point and the start of wider adoption as high power consumption, low latency and costly price barriers have been slowly broken down with advances in engineering and better chip design.

Such is the progress achieved, that the following two key areas highlight where direct and indirect gains outweigh and negate the perception of high costs and performance concerns.

Isn’t 10GbE Copper power hungry?

Today’s PHY chipset technology provides anything from 5 to 8 watts per 10GBase-T port, lower than the 10+ Watts cited in recent years when compared to transceivers such as 10GBase-SR that can draw less than 1W. Drawing an increase in power by a factor of 5 can seem like an expensive upgrade cost. When factored against servers that can draw anything up to 1000W or more, the overall proportion is low. Additional power consumption points to a costly operation, but when considering alternative related costs such as fiber transceivers, it’s plausible that the overall cost will be less to deploy 10GBase-T. For SMB and even mid-sized organisation switch-server installations, ‘short reach’ cable runs of less than 45 metre will apply and use even less power. For such distances, savings will also be made by leveraging familiar and existing investments - Cat5e cabling.

Isn’t 10GbE Copper using Cat6A cabling a heavier, bulkier and less flexible solution than fiber

The better comparison is to pair more established Cat5e deployments with Cat6A, both of which can leverage 10GbE Copper. Consider that moving to 10GbE connectivity will also help reduce the number of GbE connections into a server rack, which in turn are increasingly available with 10GbE connectivity. Even if you need to install bulkier Cat6A cables to replace thinner Cat5e, the overall number of port connections footprint will be reduced and save on space and alleviate power consumption concerns.

A final and invaluable consideration is the role of auto-negotiation. A 10GBase-T switch will be able to work and communicate effectively with legacy Gbit/s and 100Mbit/s server connections. For any fiber based systems that cannot support lower speeds, wholesale rip and replace server upgrades may be required in addition to 10GbE switch upgrades. Instead, 10GBase-T provides a viable and affordable investment path that supports incremental server and switch upgrades to suit evolving network needs.

New 10GbE Copper Switches

Netgear is the first networking vendor to introduce fixed configuration 10GbE copper switches to the SMB market in a choice of light managed, smart managed and fully managed switch footprints.

NEW: ProSafe PLUS XS708E

The new ProSafe PLUS XS708E leads the way in delivering 8 10GBase-T ports to deliver the most cost effective copper switch in the market. Ideal for workgroup aggregation, server and storage connectivity or high bandwidth applications, the XS708E delivers up to 10 times the throughput of traditional GbE copper switches. As a step up from an unmanaged switch, the PLUS family leverages some key benefits of a smart switch. On top of the plug-n-play 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, it also offers some fundamental network features that will help optimize the performance of business networks such as VLAN, QoS, IGMP Snooping, Port trunking and rate limiting, traffic monitoring.

NEW: Smart managed ProSafe XS712T

The NETGEAR ProSafe 12-port 10 Gigabit Smart Switch (XS712T), offers twelve 10GbE copper connectivity ports and two shared 10GbE fiber SFP+ ports as well as an extensive set of Layer 2 network features through the easy-to-use web-based management interface that comes in all NETGEAR Smart Switches. In addition to VLAN support for traffic segmentation, QoS for traffic prioritization, advanced security and IGMP snooping, the switch also provides advanced features such as dynamic VLAN assignment, double VLAN tagging, ACL binding, static routing, and MLP snooping. The XS712T can be used in SMB networks as the core switch, providing 10 Gigabit connections to servers and storage devices. It can also be used as an access switch in medium-to-large-sized networks where it can be connected to the new ProSafe M7100 series Managed Switch (XSM7224) at the core and expand 10 Gigabit connectivity to the edge.

NEW: ProSafe M7100 Series; Introducing the M7100-24X (XSM7224)

M7100 series combines latest advances in hardware and software engineering for higher availability, lower latency and stronger security. The M7100-24X delivers top-of-the-rack, line-rate performance for virtualization and high-density backbones: 24 ports 10GBase-T with 4 SFP+ uplinks; redundant power supplies and fan trays; static L3 routing at a high-value price point. Auto-iSCSI optimization, Private VLANs and Local Proxy ARP take the complexity out of delivering network services for virtualized servers and 10GbE infrastructures.

10GbE Fiber Switch options

In addition to the all-new 10GbE Copper range, a choice of full fiber and fiber uplink fixed configuration switches are available to a multitude of deployment scenarios.

ProSafe Fully Managed XSM7224S – Full Fiber solution

The NETGEAR ProSafe 10 Gigabit Stackable Managed Switch, XSM7224S, allows for a flexible top-of-rack infrastructure. All 24 ports of 10 Gigabit SFP+ interfaces are Gigabit/10 Gigabit capable and deliver wired speed performance with ultra-low latency. Four shared 10GBase-T interfaces broaden 10 Gigabit connectivity with auto-sensing RJ45. Local/distant stacking provides versatile 10 Gigabit deployment possibilities, such as Distributed (LACP) Aggregation for virtualized servers and storage.

ProSafe Fully Managed M5300 Series with 10GbE Copper (10GBase-T) and SFP+ uplink connectivity

The Next-Gen Edge M5300 series is NETGEAR’s top of the line solution for managed, stackable Gigabit Ethernet switches with embedded 10 GbE uplink and stacking connectivity. They are ideal for all organizations considering reliable, affordable and simple 10 Gigabit Ethernet backbone architectures. As a proficient component of converged voice, video and data networking solutions, this series delivers a resilient access layer in server rooms for virtualization, campus LAN environments and commercial buildings. Virtual Chassis stacking technology - including meshed stacking - scales both the entire network's performance and its redundancy.

ProSafe Smart Stackable GS752TXS with 10G SFP+ uplink connectivity

An ideal companion to the rapidly emerging class of 10 Gigabit servers, the NETGEAR® ProSafe® 52-port Gigabit Stackable Smart Switch is the industry’s first smart switch with 10 Gigabit connectivity – delivering maximum throughput in SMB networks for demanding tasks such as data replication and backup, virtualization, video on demand and high-volume transaction processing. At less than half the cost of a managed switch, the ProSafe 52-Port Gigabit Smart Switch provides 48 Gigabit ports for connecting devices to the network, along with four 10GbE SFP+ ports for stacking or uplink to servers. As many as six switches can be stacked for a total of 288 network ports, with full redundancy for unsurpassed reliability.