Juniper Shipping EX8216 Data Center Switch
That day has come.
Juniper on Tuesday said the EX8216 Ethernet switch, a 16-slot monster with a fabric capacity of 12.4 terabits, is now generally available.
According to Bobby Guhasarkar, Juniper's senior manager of product marketing, Ethernet Platforms Business Group, the EX8216 completes the puzzle for the EX series. The switch can pass 2 billion packets per second, has a per-slot capacity of 320 Gbps and offers 786 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 128 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Guhasarkar said the EX8200 line, which also includes the eight-slot EX8208 that started shipping in February, is built to support cloud computing environments and next-generation Web 2.0 applications.
Guhasarkar said the EX8216 arms partners with a high-performance switch that lets them tell a 10 Gigabit Ethernet story, while also broadening their data center offerings beyond traditional data center networking gear.
The EX8216 is aimed at the high-end market, clocking in at a half-rack high. According to Juniper, it can house three different line cards: one with eight 10 Gig SPF+ ports, one with 48 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 ports and one with 48 1 Gig SFP ports.
Guhasarkar said the 8216 comes at a time when companies are eyeing 10 Gigabit Ethernet as they build out virtualization plans and require more bandwidth. In many respects, standard Gigabit Ethernet becomes insufficient. Additionally, he said, 10 Gigabit Ethernet is becoming a critical and vital component of the network core.
The availability of the EX8216 completes the EX Series switch picture, joining the EX2200, EX2500, EX3200 and EX4200 lines. It also falls into Juniper's Data Center Infrastructure Solutions architecture. It is managed using JUNOS interfaces, including the JUNOS command-line interface, the J-Web graphical interface and the Network and Security Manager (NSM).
"In many ways, the 8216 completes the portfolio for us," Guhasarkar said.