Foundry Networks announced Microsoft’s selection of Foundry Networks’ NetIron MLX Series 10 gigabit Ethernet IPv4/IPv6 MPLS routers for its Enterprise Engineering Center, a state-of-the-art proving ground for the world’s most complex computing environments based in Redmond, Wash. The Microsoft EEC can replicate virtually any production environment for customers to gain a clear view of how Microsoft’s pre-release products will perform in their home environments prior to installation.

Microsoft’s objective for the EEC was to deploy a network that provides internal and external customers access to resources located within the EEC and labs connected to its new 10 gigabit campus area network. The center’s operators demanded a solution that would scale to meet escalating performance requirements, but would be flexible enough to allow staff to reconfigure the network regularly to meet customer needs.

With this at top of mind, Microsoft selected Foundry’s NetIron MLX-16 routers for its core and the NetIron MLX-4 routers in additional labs to allow for Virtual Private LAN Services across a 10 gigabit connection. Today, the EEC can create a VPLS instance for each customer offering customers improved traffic separation. With the new Foundry Networks solution installed, the EEC also implemented Q-in-Q in conjunction with VPLS to achieve a hierarchical design to meet its goals.

By leveraging Foundry routers, the EEC has the traffic separation, performance and future expansion capacity it needs with a standards-based solution, as well as improved utilization of the network.

Built with Foundry’s state-of-the-art, fifth-generation, network processor-based architecture and Terabit-scale switch fabrics, the Foundry NetIron MLX Series routers give the network a rich set of high-performance IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, and Multi-VRF capabilities as well as advanced Layer 2 switching capabilities. Designed to enable reliable converged infrastructures and support mission-critical applications, the NetIron MLX Series features an advanced N+1 redundant switch fabric architecture for very high availability.

This architecture ensures that the system continues to operate at peak performance even in the case of a switch fabric card failure. The NetIron’s 10 gigabit fiber ports terminate to racks hosting the servers, allowing staff to allocate resources per rack for each customer.

Shalini Ale/ITvoir Network