• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • IBM Cuts BNT Switch Tags, Adds Fibre Channel SAN Switches

    August 22, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    As a long-time IBM customer, you are probably not used to the fact that there is an IBM System Networking division that sells data center and storage switches. And as a really long time IBM customer, as many AS/400 shops certainly are, you are probably wondering why the hell Big Blue sold off its networking business to Cisco Systems in 1999 and basically gave the company a decade of high margins.

    No matter. IBM has acquired and partnered to build up its own portfolio of switching products, and the company is eager to dislodge the incumbents whose switches are on Big Blue server turf. Last week, in announcement letter 311-114, IBM cut the price tag on the Blade Network Technologies RackSwitch G8052R (product number 1455-48E) top-of-rack switch. IBM announced three different RackSwitches back in April, and this 48-port model is one of them. This particular model has 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be used for uplinks or to link to servers. It used to cost $10,999, but now IBM has cut the tag on this box by 18.5 percent to $8,999.

    IBM has not cut the tags on the “real” 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches announced in April–the 24-port G124ER and the 48-port G8264R, which also has four 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports for additional 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to servers using splitter cables or to be used as uplinks to end-of-row or core switches.

    Now here’s the strange bit. IBM had already cut the price on the RackSwitch G58052R and G8052F when acquired through its online store in announcement letter 311-101, saying it would give customers who bought them online the switches for $5,500, a 38.5 percent price cut over what IBM said was the $8,949 list price on these two units out there on the Intertubes. The old discount deal from IBM that came out in July is still the better deal, obviously.

    Go figure. I just report what IT vendors do and don’t do–I don’t take responsibility for it.

    IBM last week also announced two SAN backbone switches supporting 16Gb/sec connectivity out to storage as well as a new SAN switch for linking. These three devices are very serious storage switches aimed at very high-end customers that are building large-scale clusters and clouds. The System Storage SAN768B-2 is a modular chassis switch with 384 ports running at that very high speed, while the SAN384B-2 has 192 ports; they also sport 10 Gb/sec Ethernet ports for metro-level connectivity between data centers. (Prior modular Fibre Channel blades ran at 8 Gb/sec and thus the product names and port counts made sense.) The SAN48B-5 is a 1U rack-mounted, fixed port Fibre Channel switch that has 48 ports running at the 16 Gb/sec Fibre Channel speed. These three switches are backwards compatible with earlier and slower Fibre Channel devices, all the way back to 2 Gb/sec devices from the dawn of time.

    RELATED STORIES

    IBM Has A Fire Sale on BNT Rack Switches

    IBM Buys Blade Network to Control Ethernet Switches

    IBM Cuts Deals on Selected Network Switches

    Intelliden Snapped Up by IBM for Network Management

    Hewlett-Packard Eats 3Com for $2.7 Billion

    Cisco to Make Nexus Converged Switches for Blades

    IBM Bundles RAID into BladeCenter S i Edition, Adds Lots of Networking

    The Data Center Is the Computer



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    Focal Point Solutions Group

    CLOUD SOLUTIONS

    From Production, Test and Development, Disaster and Backup environments, as well as hosting customer-owned servers, we offer a variety of Cloud Solutions to accommodate all sizes of business and industry. FPSG is in a unique position to provide services for multinational corporations and SMBs with data centers located throughout North America and Europe.

    Does your IBM midrange, AIX, iSeries, Intel, or Linux environment need an improved Cloud strategy?

    EXPLORE OUR CUSTOM SOLUTIONS

    • Production Solutions
    • Disaster Recovery
    • Backup and Recovery Services
    • Data Centers
    • Security & Compliance Services
    • Application Hosting

    MANAGED SERVICES

    Focal Point offers a variety of custom-managed services from daily operations management and monitoring to high availability, backup, and disaster recovery support services. If your enterprise requirements reside in IBM midrange, AIX, iSeries, Intel, or Linux, FPSG can help support your team with our managed services experts. No User downtime for production backups.

    • System Monitoring
    • Server & SAN
    • High Availability/Disaster Recovery Monitoring
    • Managed Backup Services
    • Security Administration & Monitoring
    • Cloud Environment Monitoring

    Our experts combine decades of experience with industry-leading innovation to customize effective solutions for your organization, budget, and infrastructure.

    It’s not uncommon for organizations to miss important requirements when implementing and planning for new technologies. Our Managed Technical Services ensure total compliance, with no compromise or loss of data. Our skilled specialists will design and execute a non-disruptive and comprehensive solution, allowing your IT team to concentrate on the day-to-day activities – resulting in a more agile and cost-effective infrastructure.

    Watch our IntellaFLASH™ Video to learn more

    Let’s Discuss Your Custom Solution Needs

    Follow us on LinkedIn

    focalpointsg.com | 813.513.7402

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Attachmate Bolsters Security of MFT Offering Flash Builder for PHP 4.5.1 Gets iOS Support

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 20, Number 29 -- August 22, 2011
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

Maxava
Help/Systems
Townsend Security
inFORM Decisions
Twin Data Corporation

Table of Contents

  • More Details Emerge on Future Power7+ and Power8 Chips
  • IBM Taps Software Exec For Power Systems Marketing
  • EnterpriseDB Sets Sights on Oracle’s MySQL
  • As I See It: Paying Attention
  • Mad Dog 21/21: How To Downgrade Your Business Partner
  • Big Blue Tweaks Red Hat Deal for Power Systems
  • IBM Cuts BNT Switch Tags, Adds Fibre Channel SAN Switches
  • Services Power Jack Henry to Record Revenues in Fiscal 2011
  • Kronos Sells Lots of HR Software On Premise and In Its Cloud
  • Status Update: Sick and Tired of Social Media

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • DRV Brings More Automation to IBM i Message Monitoring
  • Managed Cloud Saves Money By Cutting System And People Overprovisioning
  • Multiple Security Vulnerabilities Patched on IBM i
  • Four Hundred Monitor, June 22
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 25
  • Plotting A Middle Age Career Change To IBM i
  • What Is Code Transformation Even?
  • Guru: The CALL I’ve Been Waiting For
  • A Frank Solstice
  • The Inevitable Wave Of Power9 Withdrawals Begins

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2022 IT Jungle

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.