Foundry Networks' IronWare 07.6.01 promises to enhance network control, bolster network availability, and increase security.

by Wayne Kawamoto [September 16, 2002]

Foundry Networks, a provider of enterprise and service provider switching, routing, and Web traffic management solutions, announced that IronWare release 07.6.01 promises enhancements to increase network availability and performance, and strengthen network security.

According to the company, customers can now plan and build more flexible networks that will provide greater packet level security and control, and increased levels of reliability with expanded fault tolerance.

The company says that key features demanded by network administrators that are now available in IronWare release 07.6.01 include:

• Access Control List (ACL) Enhancements that provide consistent QoS definitions and implementation to define QoS policies and control how the network allocates bandwidth and set traffic priorities.
  
  
• IEEE 802.1s Spanning Tree Instance per VLAN Group should allow network administrators to subdivide large corporate user environments into multiple smaller VLAN groups and configure one rapid spanning tree instance for each group.
  
  
• IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree intended to insure that a network can recover from catastrophic core networking failures in milliseconds rather than minutes, improving network availability.
  
  
• IEEE 802.1x Port Authentication used in conjunction with RADIUS authentication services should prevent unauthorized network access for users who don't have a valid login and password.
  
  
• JetScope/sFlow on 10 Gigabit Ethernet Modules should enable "Always-on" network traffic monitoring.
  
  
• MAC/Port Lockdown is designed to prevent individuals from accessing a network by simply plugging into an open (and pre-wired) RJ-45 ports.
  
  
• Uni-Directional Link Detection (UDLD) monitors a fiber connection between two networking devices and should cleanly disable the link in the event that either the individual transmitter or receiver for that connection fails.
  
  
• Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP) is a physical level protocol that helps network managers build large-scale meshed networking environments with redundant connectivity that should be free from the complexity normally associated with Spanning Tree Protocol.

"The goal of Foundry's Enterprise strategy is to provide our customers with a consistent range of tools to build secure and highly available networks that can compliment and bolster user productivity gains while enhancing the overall networking experience," said Chandra Kopparapu, director of product marketing for Foundry Networks. "By building their data system using Foundry's end-to-end Enterprise solutions, our customers have at hand an infrastructure that can grow to match escalating demands made on the network for ever increasing levels of security and complexity normally associated throughout an organization's normal business lifecycle."

Pricing and availability
Foundry's IronWare 07.6.01 upgrade is free to customers holding a valid support contract and will be available October 1, 2002.

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