Cisco Systems Inc. today announced the availability of two new switches that will further enable the adoption of Gigabit Ethernet on the desktop.
The new products, the Cisco Catalyst 3750G-12S and the Cisco Catalyst 2970G-24TS, are additions to existing products families. The 3750 product family is targeted at the enterprise, and the 2970 product family is targeted at the small and medium-sized business (SMB), as well as the branch office.
"The value proposition for Gigabit Ethernet at the desktop is becoming clear," said Scott Boynton, a senior product line manager with Cisco. These products are part of Cisco's effort to cater to that market.
The 3750G-12S is a fixed configuration Gigabit Ethernet switch that supports the Cisco Cluster Management Suite and includes 12 small form factor pluggable (SFP) ports. It is a fixed aggregation switch designed to aggregate switching boxes in the wiring closet, Boynton said.
When the 3750 switches are stacked, they can work as a single network node. That way, performance isn't negatively affected when traffic moves from one box to the next. Also, a single Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent can manage the entire stack, rather than having to deploy one for each box, said Dave Passmore, research director with the Midvale, Utah-based research firm Burton Group.
The 2970 line of switches is also designed to help bring Gigabit Ethernet to desktop computer users. The new 2970G-24TS switch
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is designed to be a less expensive OSI Layer 2 product, which appeals to those who do not need the richness of the Layer 3 3750G-12S, Boynton said.
The 2970G-24TS has 10/100/1000 on all 24 ports and four SFP uplinks. Users can uplink to the core from a work group using this switch, Boynton said. He said the product is aimed at SMBs, as well as remote offices.
The 3750G-12S switches are available for $7,995. The 2790G-25TS will ship later this month and will cost $5,495.
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