Ruckus Networks wants to provide an answer for all those devices that are taxing network cores, offering up its new ICX 7850 switch, which is designed to served as an edge-to-core solution for the next decade of enterprise networking.
According to Ruckus, the enterprise core is under stress from several fronts. The rapid increases in Wi-Fi speeds as well as CBRS LTE backhaul traffic, IoT devices for smart buildings and cloud-based applications and video are some of the factors changing the landscape.
“The ever-increasing need for Wi-Fi connectivity is taxing network cores, but the solution to keeping up with the proliferation of devices and advances in wireless technology does not need to be complex and expensive,” said Siva Valliappan, vice president of Wired Products, Ruckus Networks, in a press release. “The ICX 7850 switch simplifies multi-gigabit network upgrades and reduces the total cost for enterprises through its ability to scale quickly and linearly to future network demands.”
Ruckus said its pay-as-you-grow design enables enterprise networks to keep pace with advances in wireless technologies—such as 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), IoT and LTE—and accommodate continued multi-gigabit network growth.
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Ruckus is actually introducing three different products in the 7850 family, each targeting a slightly different audience, Valliappan told Fierce. Generally speaking, though, the target markets for the ICX 7850 are enterprise, higher education, federal agencies and large K-12 school districts.
“We are seeing a clear shift towards multigigabit access in enterprises, which makes the introduction of the Ruckus ICX7850 very timely,” said IDC senior research analyst Brandon Butler in a statement. “More data-intensive devices and applications continue to stress the core of the enterprise network and are driving a move to 100GbE network infrastructure. Ruckus’ ICX 7850 and management solutions address these issues and when complemented with the company's SmartZone network controller, the company is able to manage access points and switches in a ‘single pane of glass,’ simplifying network management and operational efficiency.”
The ICX 7850 family also includes support for the latest security standards and encryption technologies. ICX switches have been deployed in U.S. federal government for over two decades and comply with the most stringent security standards and federal certifications including FIPS, Common Criteria, CSfC and JITC, the company said. The ICX 7850 also supports Media Access Control Security (MACsec), a Layer 2 security technology, based on symmetric cryptographic keys, to provide point-to-point security on Ethernet links between nodes.
Ruckus is holding a demo this week at its booth at the AFCEA West 2019 in San Diego, where a lot of potential U.S. Navy and other customers are likely to show up.