Dophiのブログ

      Nortel Virtual Services Switch 5000 (VSS 5000), probably will be GA in December, is a new modular product that is mainly targeted for Data Centers requiring availability, performance and security. This kind hardware modularity of the product gives the possibility for customers to choose the modules for their network. Inside of this switch, it provides Virtual Service Modules (VSMs) to operate individually or transparently to each other.

      Base on VSM modularity, the VSS 5000 provides several functions such as Server Load Balancing (SLB) with SLB VSM, security with firewall (FW) VSM, traffic management with Intelligent Traffic Management (ITM) VSM.  Another concept for VSS 500 is "Virtual Rack". It allows the segregation of individual physical products into various virtual devices which represent each physical device. Each Virtual Rack is separated with "Secure Wall" that allows a full separation of the virtual racks. This network virtualization let customers replace several devices with one single easy to manage device.

      VSS 5000 provides a variety of application switching services as below:

• Server Load Balancing
• Global Server Load Balancing
• Intelligent Traffic Management
• Firewall
• Intrusion Prevention System
• SSL Acceleration

      The integration of those services in to one device offers customers flexibility in the deployment of the product. In addition, VSS 5000 offers a capability in managing the different services and virtual racks on the device with its role-based management function. The Role-based management lets management can be separated and administrators can only work with their own virtual rack.

      Well, it is a big step for Nortel to release this new platform. Alteon series has been released for a long time without any improvement. While every competitor is improving their own products, Alteon loses a lot of advantage in the market. I hope this new platform can change this situation and replace some Nortel products if it's good enough to do it.

The product link of Nortel: http://products.nortel.com/go/product_content.jsp?parId=0&segId=0&prod_id=66840