Industrial Automation Magazine India

SoftIron introduces HyperSwitch next-generation top-of-rack network switches

Published on : Monday 23-03-2020

SoftIron offers HyperSwitch, built on Open Source SONiC, for high performance & flexibility without vendor lock-in.

London, March 18, 2020 – SoftIron Ltd, the leader in purpose-built and performance-optimized data center appliances, today announced the availability of the HyperSwitch™, its next-generation top-of-rack switch built to maximise the performance and flexibility of SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud), an open source network operating system built by Microsoft for scale-out performance networking. The HyperSwitch family includes three models, each optimised for hyperscale data centre performance with simplified core networking functionality, and wire-speed on all ports at all times with uncompromising performance. HyperSwitch is SoftIron's high speed, next-generation top-of-rack switch built to maximise the performance and flexibility of SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud). It has been optimised and purpose-built to support hyperscale data centres.

SoftIron's HyperSwitch line of networking switches deliver simplicity, scalability and performance with packet speeds of up to 1.8 terabits per second, offering data centre operators the ability to build lightning fast, scale-out data centres without the compatibility issues and vendor lock-in of proprietary solutions. HyperSwitch units add power and extensibility by including an AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 Processor that can be used flexibly by network operators for network security applications such as firewalls, or for dedicated storage managers, and virtually any other software desired for custom networking operations.

"SoftIron believes that specialization fosters performance breakthroughs that are meaningful to customers. These breakthroughs provide performance advantages that don't exist with commodity hardware solutions," said Phil Straw, CEO of SoftIron. "No matter the performance grade of your compute and storage architecture, your system will only ever be as fast – or reliable – as your network. In HyperSwitch, SoftIron has created a top-of-rack network switching system, custom-built for maximising the power of SONiC. HyperSwitch is optimised for the needs of the enterprise data centre of the future – which is being faced with the scale-out challenges that come with 5G, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and more. In an era where compute is expanding into new use-cases, having a performance switch without the vendor-lock in provides organisations with flexibility that hasn't been available in high-end networking equipment."