Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc. is extending its channel-only 10Gb Ethernet switch portfolio with device that should prove very attractive for companies looking to reduce their power consumption without sacrificing performance, says Jim Preasmyer, director of sales and business development, Advanced Technology Group.

"With the XG2600 we have reduced the power to under 130W fully loaded, which is pretty impressive. A lot of focus in companies is going green and this switch really allows us to achieve that, getting under 5W per port (a 30 percent reduction)."

The 26-port XG2600 is the newest addition to the company's family of XG Layer 2 Ethernet networking switching solutions. The use of SFP+ optical modules and support for SFP+ twinax copper cables enables customers to maximize the use of each available port and minimize the overall cost of energy and cabling, said Preasmyer. The XG2600 also offers field-reversible cooling fans that reduce the overall cost of cooling. And the low-power, 1U high form factor allows for easy integration into existing networks and system chassis. That's especially attractive to customers who don't want to rip and replace, he added.

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Fujitsu has been in the Ethernet switch market since 2005, selling only through the channel, said Preasmyer. The XG family offers high throughput, low latency, flexible interfaces and low failure rates. "We're fast and we don't drop packets."

Key applications include video servers, high-performance computing and the Internet SCSI (iSCSI) and Networked Attached Storage (NAS) markets. With the increasing focus on green IT, the switch's power performance should not only prove attractive to existing customers but also appeal to the many companies that have been delaying upgrades and purchases, especially in the data center.

"Customers upgrading data centers can't afford to not have 10Gb in there. You have to have bigger pipes running it and we're definitely seeing growth from that."

Overall, Preasmyer said the 10Gb Ethernet switch market has been slower to develop than expected. Most analysts predicted faster adoption of 10Gb ports but the market hasn't quite grown as quickly as people would have liked it too, he said.

However, that appears to be changing. "We've seen an awful lot of activity lately. We've seen projects being delayed but they're coming back to life now."

Fujitsu is excited about 2010, said Preasmyer. "We continue to see more and more customers looking at 10Gb every day."

For customers still hesitating about the expense of upgrading to 10Gb, Preasmyer recommended the recently released 24-port XG0224 and 48-port XG0448 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet Switches. "Customers can essentially pay as you grow. That coupled with these new products really position us well to meet that edge space for our customer base."

Fujitsu is already taking orders for the switches from its channel partners, but the company is still determining how the product launch will proceed, including possible incentives. "We're in the early stages of seeing how we're going to roll the switch out."