Press Release

BLADE Network Technologies Brings Rackonomics to Blade Users with Future-Proof 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet Uplink Switch

First hybrid 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet switch for IBM BladeCenter portfolio—BLADE’s new network virtualization switch— with 50 percent greater bandwidth and up to 50 percent better energy efficiency—priced up to 50 percent less

Santa Clara, Calif., July 1, 2008—BLADE Network Technologies, Inc., the industry leader in network virtualization and high-performance solutions for servers and storage, announced the first 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet network virtualization switch for IBM BladeCenter.

BLADE’s new switch provides the ability to use six 1-Gigabit copper and three 10-Gigabit SFP+ fiber uplinks concurrently—for 50 percent more bandwidth than alternative blade switch offerings. BLADE’s new switch applies the principles of “Rackonomics” to “scale out” and virtualize data center networks, driving down the total cost of ownership associated with high-performance clusters and virtualized data centers that require an affordable migration path to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The BLADE 1/10Gb switch features:

• Power consumption that is 33 to 50 percent lower than alternative blade switches
• Layer 2/3 support for advanced features such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) built-in at no additional cost, and
• Extensive network virtualization capabilities such as VMReady™.

The BLADE switch is priced up to 50 percent less than alternative blade switches.

“IBM continues to foster an ecosystem of industry-leading products around BladeCenter. With BLADE’s new 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet switch in the portfolio, BladeCenter customers have strong investment protection and a clear migration path as they transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet,” said Alex Yost, IBM Vice President and Business Line Executive for IBM BladeCenter. “Customers are making the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet because it provides 10 times faster bandwidth, allowing them to transfer much more data. This better supports sharing multimedia files as well as virtualization, an important part of the new enterprise datacenter.”

The BLADE 1/10Gb switch with Nortel/BNT Extensions to IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager I/O virtualization software enables multiple embedded blade server switches to operate as one large virtual switch using stacking. Stacking allows switches to be easily combined into one logical unit. In addition, customers can exploit the advantages of automated fail over or moves without the need for manual address re-assignment—reducing the coordination normally required between server and network administrators.

“Bringing 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to IBM BladeCenter simplifies the network and reduces cost-of-ownership, while improving overall system performance,” said Vikram Mehta, President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies. “Our Rackonomics approach means giving customers the option to affordably and easily implement both Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet as they scale out and virtualize their data center networks. We are pleased that IBM chose BLADE to provide IBM BladeCenter clients with active 1/10 Gigabit functionality.”

The BLADE switch helps customers build a unified LAN and Ethernet-based storage fabric (iSCSI or NAS), while also providing extreme flexibility with a combination of 1Gb and 10Gb ports as applications require. Advantages of using BLADE’s Nortel 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module on IBM BladeCenter include:

• Lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for networks transitioning from 1 Gigabit to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
• Enterprise-class Layer 3 features standard—Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and others.
• More power efficient green design.
• Reduced network complexity, cable management and troubleshooting.
• Best way to equip blade servers for increased I/O for network virtualization.
• Ideal for applications requiring high uplink bandwidth such as IPTV, video surveillance, IP SAN storage, high-performance computing, remote backup, and disaster recovery.
• IPv6 capable.

BLADE’s Nortel 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module delivers 104 Gbps full-duplex throughput to the IBM BladeCenter enclosure.

Pricing and Availability

BLADE’s Nortel 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module is available from IBM now, priced starting at $4,999. Stacking will be supported for IBM BladeCenter in the fourth quarter. Contact your IBM sales representative for further information and visit www.ibm.com/bladecenter or www.bladenetwork.net/ibm.

About BLADE Network Technologies

BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and “scale-out” server and storage racks. BLADE’s new “virtual, cooler and easier” top-of-rack switches demonstrate the promise of “Rackonomics”—a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company’s customers include half of the Fortune 500 across 26 industry segments, and an installed base of over 170,000 network switches representing more than 4 million switch ports. Visit: www.bladenetwork.net.