Extreme Networks, which provides Ethernet solutions for network connectivity and IP-based communications, has reportedly joined Scale Computing, a data storage developer offering enterprise-class scalable and clustered storage solutions, to market low-cost storage and networking solutions for healthcare providers and small- and medium-sized businesses.

 

Sources said that the two companies will each draw from their product lines to help customers with the economic realities associated with increased reliance on data storage and decreased budgets.

 

Extreme Networks (News - Alert) will offer its BlackDiamond 8800 modular switching family featuring industry-leading 10 Gigabit network capacity, the Summit X650 and Summit X450 switches, supporting copper and fiber for cost-effective and scalable networks.

 

The BlackDiamond 8800 series switches’ purpose-built core, aggregation, edge and data center modules meet high-density switching requirements.

 

The Summit X650 switch helps optimize new server deployments while providing a seamless migration path from existing gigabit to 10 gigabit high-performance servers.

 

Summit X450 switches are based on the ExtremeXOS operating system from Extreme Network. Each Summit X450 switch offers the same high-performance, non-blocking hardware technology used on Extreme Networks BlackDiamond 8800 series.

 

Scale will offer its SN1000 and SN2000 storage nodes with TrueCluster architecture. Scale’s enterprise storage solution, TrueCluster, allows users to add storage hardware, known as storage nodes, as necessary without suspending services or migrating data.

 

By combining commodity hardware with a clustered file system commonly found only in the world’s largest supercomputers, a Scale storage cluster grows seamlessly while reducing costs by up to seventy-five percent compared to traditional enterprise storage solutions.

 

Supporting iSCSI, NFS, and SAMBA/CIFS, TrueCluster has no single point of failure, the company claims.

 

The products from Extreme and Scale will together constitute a complete data networking and IP storage solution that addresses back-up and replication of data by combining high performance Ethernet switching, from Fast Ethernet to 10 gigabits, with Scale’s TrueCluster architecture, officials added.

 

According to Peter Fuller, vice president of marketing and business development, Scale Computing, roughly 40 percent of all storage spending is from SMBs and 30 percent of all data stored by 2011 will be from health care.

 

Fuller continued, “this partnership offers true value to key industries that need to store more data and spend less money in order to maintain their competitive edge and compliance with pending regulations.”

 

“Extreme Networks is driving higher performance of Ethernet at lower costs with the added intelligence of the event-driven network,” said Paul Hooper, vice president and general manager, Volume Products Group, for Extreme Networks, in a statement. “Together, Extreme Networks and Scale Computing address the market’s evolving networking and storage needs with cost-effective and open solutions.”

 

Recently, Extreme Networks announced partnership with security solutions provider McAfee (News - Alert) “to provide world-class, secure, unified networks to mutual customers delivered through the companies’ comprehensive portfolios of high performance Ethernet networking and security (threat management) solutions.”