Juniper Networks EX4500 10 GbE Switch

Highlights

• Virtualizes the data center with Virtual Chassis (VC)―delivers 128 Gb of east–west traffic that outperforms traditional stacking solutions
• Virtualizes economically―VC across an EX4500 10 GbE switch and an IBM J48E 1 GbE switch to enable price and performance optimized solutions
• Simplifies configuration, administration, and diagnostics―VC presents multiple switches to appear as one switching entity
• Simplifies upgrades, configuration, and support―a single Junos OS across all networking tiers
• IBM three-year warranty includes next business day-replacement, with telephone support, and software fixes

In today’s virtualized data center, 70 percent of server network traffic travels in the east-to-west direction. This places a new design requirement on network engineers. Stacking technologies do not address the bandwidth requirements that are needed within a high performance computing (HPC) environment. To solve this problem, network designers turn to the Juniper Networks EX4500 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Switch.

The Juniper Networks EX4500 simplifies your network design in an increasingly complex virtualized data center. It is positioned for top-of-rack applications with sizable east/west Virtual Machine (VM) server traffic, and data center environments that desire an easy/nondisruptive migration path from 1 GbE to 10 GbE while maintaining the manageability of a single switch.

It is a 40-port 10 GbE SFP+ switch with server-friendly airflow options that include front-to-back and back-to-front air flow. As your network grows, it supports field-installable expansion modules (two of them) that each hold four ports of 10 GbE SFP+, increasing the switch’s capacity to a maximum of 48 ports of 10 GbE. Operating at wire speed, the EX4500 switches deliver 714 Mpps throughput and a data rate of 960 Gbps (full duplex) for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols. The EX4500 is also environmentally conscious, drawing less than 8 W per port under maximum load.

Its most significant feature is the standard 128 Gb Virtual Chassis (VC) Module. It is purpose-built to simplify the design of networking your virtualized servers. The 128 Gb VC module delivers exceptional performance for east-west direct-attached IBM servers, eliminating the need for an aggregation network tier. This capacity greatly exceeds the capacity of most currently marketed solutions. The VC module enables simultaneous connectivity to another EX4500 and up to eight IBM J48E 1 GbE switches. This provides a price-optimized solution for 1 GbE and 10 GbE server connectivity, and an easy migration path to 10 GbE while maintaining a single-switch presence.