Businesses continue to strive to be competitively superior and demand network infrastructures be resilient, secure, and do more with less. As requirements to protect, optimize, and grow the enterprise have extended from basic connectivity to a much higher level of intelligent service-based infrastructures, the network has evolved to provide an even greater value to the organizations. The Brocade FastIron SX family of PoE-ready Layer 2/Layer 3 switches provides a superior scalable foundation for better operational efficiency and faster response to business opportunities today and into the future.

The FastIron SX family extends control from the network edge to the backbone with intelligent network services, including superior quality of service (QoS), predictable performance, advanced security, comprehensive management, and integrated resiliency. Additionally, the FastIron SX family offers compatibility in a common operating system, and a shared interface and power supply modules reduce the cost of ownership by minimizing operational expenses and improving return on investment (ROI).

The FastIron SX family has an extensive feature set, making it well suited for real-time collaborative applications, IP telephony, IP video, e-learning, wireless LANs, and raising the organization's productivity. The FastIron SX family delivers wire-speed performance and ultra low latency, which are ideal for converged network applications such as VoIP and video conferencing. These platforms present the industry's most scalable and resilient PoE design, with a robust feature set to secure and simplify the deployment of an edge-to-core converged network. In addition, the FastIron SX family supports high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet for enterprise backbone deployments.

In addition, service providers will benefit from the power that IronWare operating system's networking intelligence offers, including advanced Layer 2 services, Brocade Metro Ring Protocol (MRP) for rapid service restoration in ring-based topologies, VLAN stacking for tunneled VLAN services, and rich bandwidth management for controlling network utilization.

Future-proofing the Network with IPv6

Migration to IPv6 is inevitable, but by starting with the deployment of IPv6-capable hardware the transition can be more controlled and less disruptive to the network. Japan and Europe are aggressively deploying IPv6, and deployment in North America is on the rise. In fact, some government agencies are mandating the purchase of IPv6-capable switches and routers. Therefore, it is important that enterprises and service providers plan to deploy IPv6-capable devices to capitalize on this inevitable change.

The Brocade IPv6-capable FastIron SX family combined with other Brocade products such as BigIron® and NetIron®, provides the industry's most complete end-to-end IPv6 solution. Customers can deploy the FastIron SX family switches knowing it is IPv6-capable hardware today, and that future separately priced software upgrades will support IPv6 routing and advanced IPv6 features tomorrow.

The new IPv6-capable FastIron SX family switches enable network managers to future-proof the network to support IPv6. These high performance, IPv6-ready platforms deliver security, convergence, and complete IPv4/IPv6 visibility using embedded sFlow for a robust edge-to-core IPv6 solution. Migration to IPv6 is inevitable. By starting early with the deployment of IPv6-capable hardware, the transition can be more controlled and less disruptive to the network.

Configuration Alternatives

The FastIron SX family of switches is optimized for flexibility with upgradeability for PoE, redundant management, switch fabric and power, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Available in three chassis models, the scalable FastIron SX family helps enterprises and service providers reduce costs and gain the operational benefits of a common operating system, a shared interface, and common power supply modules.

The FastIron SuperX

• 8 Interface slots
• Up to 192 Class 3 PoE ports
• N+1 system power redundancy
• N+1 PoE power redundancy
• 1-year Hardware Warranty, 90-day Limited Software Warranty

The FastIron SX 800

• 8 interface slots
• Up to 192 Class 3 PoE ports
• N+1 system power redundancy
• N+1 PoE power redundancy
• Management redundancy
• Fabric redundancy
• Assurance Limited Lifetime Warranty

The FastIron SX 1600

• Up to N+3 system power redundancy
• Up to N+3 PoE power redundancy
• Up to 384 Class 3 PoE ports
• Up to 36 10GbE ports
• Management redundancy
• Fabric redundancy
• Assurance Limited Lifetime Warranty