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It has been a long time since users of Nortel’s Alteon application switches got an upgrade, but new owner Radware made it happen.
This week Radware unveiled the Alteon 5412, just seven months after it acquired the Alteon assets from struggling Nortel. The 5412 is a Radware box, but it runs the same OS as previous Alteon models, making the migration easier for existing Alteon customers.
“For customers that are used to the Alteon management, the CLI, the feature set, there’s basically no change,” says Radware CEO Roy Zisapel. “It looks like, it behaves like, it is an Alteon. We call it Alteon on steroids. It’s just running on a very high-end platform, and as a result they can enjoy the scalability.”
The Alteon 5412 can deliver up to 20Gbps of application switching throughput capacity and up to 340,000 Layer 4 transactions per second. The system offers four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 12 1G Ethernet ports.
The Alteon 5412 also incorporates Radware’s “pay-as-you-grow” technology. Customers can add capacity as they need it, without having to replace hardware, Zisapel says. “You can start with 8 gigs, for example, and as time goes by and your needs grow, just apply the license and scale it without changing the hardware, the software or the configuration. Even without rebooting.”
When news of the purchase first surfaced, Radware made a commitment to continue to sell Nortel’s application delivery gear under the Radware Alteon brand and invest in the products’ development. Radware promised to support the existing Alteon line for five years, as well as deliver ongoing maintenance software releases and develop new products.
It pledged to increase the amount of R&D and QA engineers, and today there are roughly 120 people solely dedicated to the Alteon product family, Zisapel says. “We have a complete roadmap, and we’ll continue to issue the next versions according to the timeline,” he says.
It’s a big change for Alteon customers, who saw five or six years go by without a new product from Nortel. The 5412 is roughly eight times faster than the previous top-of-the-line Alteon, Zisapel says.
“We had an overwhelming demand for beta from customers that I would never expect to do a beta platform,” he says. “The Alteon customer base was really waiting for a faster, stronger, next-generation platform.”
Radware’s commitment to support and expand the Alteon portfolio is significant, industry watchers say.
“Radware is building a bank of goodwill with Alteon customers and partners by restoring the Alteon brand and advancing the product line with the introduction of the 5412,” said Lucinda Borovick, a research vice president at IDC, in a statement. “Offering platform longevity with a 5-year support program, Radware Alteon customers can reduce capital and operational expenditures, making the 5412 a credible long-term application delivery option for global enterprises.”