The 10 Hottest Networking And VoIP Products Hitting The Market This Fall

New Products You Need To Know

The networking industry is moving at a ferocious pace in 2017 with the rollout of new software and hardware products.

CRN takes a look at some of the most innovative products in the networking and VoIP industry from heavyweights including Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Arista Networks, as well as from fast-growing startups like Apstra and Zoom. Some of these new products are leveraging forward-thinking technology such as artificial intelligence or offering a pay-as-you-grow sales model.

Here are 10 of the coolest networking and VoIP products that are hitting the market this fall.

Aerohive's New MSP Services, Tools

Aerohive Networks launched cloud-managed hot-spot services for public and guest Wi-Fi access. MSPs can leverage new guest authentication methods and hot-spot management tools from Aerohive to boost services for customers at scale. The networking vendor's expanded MSP offering includes Aerohive Hotspot 2.0, cloud-authenticated Facebook and Google social login services, as well as its new Hierarchical HiveManager multi-tenancy management tool, which pools devices and licenses across an MSP's entire customer base and locations.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise New APs, Edge Switch

ALE recently introduced 802.11ac Wave 2 access points and edge switches aimed at the Internet of Things market. The vendor's new OmniAccess Stellar WLAN family of access points use a controller-less architecture with distributed control intelligence for indoor and outdoor usage with resiliency and security. The APs include integrated guest management and built-in DPI that can be leveraged for analytics to better support devices such as surveillance cameras and traffic lights. OmniAccess Stellar is offered in two flavors: Wi-Fi Express, which scales up to 64 APs and operates in a simplified cluster architecture; or Wi-Fi Enterprises for networks with high scalability.

ALE also unveiled an access switch, the OmniSwitch 6560, with 2.5-Gbps access ports. Additional 10-Gbps uplink ports and 20-Gbps stacking ports offer the option to address the growing demand in network traffic.

Apstra 2.0

A pioneer in intent-based networking to enable a self-operating network, red-hot networking startup Apstra has launched the second version of its flagship, vendor-agnostic Apstra Operating System (AOS). The new AOS 2.0 delivers a turnkey intent-based OS and applications that automatically prevent and repair network outages for improved infrastructure uptime, while its distributed data store is a repository of all intent, configuration and telemetry state.

AOS 2.0 accelerates the process of migrating from legacy data center infrastructures to modern leaf-spine infrastructures with fully automated and integrated Layer 3 underlay and Layer 2 overlay. AOS 2.0 includes automation of the entire life cycle of virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN)-based network services within and across racks.

Arista Any Cloud Platform

Arista Networks recently launched its Arista Any Cloud software platform, which is aimed at reducing customers' operational costs and complexity by simplifying integration and management of hybrid clouds across private cloud data centers and public cloud providers. The platform supports Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Equinix Cloud Exchange, Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud.

The platform includes new virtualized offerings including the Arista vEOS Router, which is the company's flagship Extensible Operating System (EOS) offered as a multi-cloud and muti-hypervisior virtual router. Arista also unveiled its Cloud Tracer product that provides visibility by tracking metrics across the entire hybrid cloud environment. The platform is combined with Arista's workload orchestration, automation and analytics software, CloudVision.

Comcast's New SDN Platform

Comcast Business launched its first software-defined networking platform and application for advanced network management. The Comcast ActiveCore platform, which is cable-delivered, lets enterprise customers manage networks across multiple locations, branch offices or data centers.

Software-defined WAN is the first service on the new platform that combines secure IP VPN, application-aware routing, and a stateful network firewall. Comcast's new SD-WAN service, coupled with its network, provides a "tremendous opportunity" for channel partners, said Craig Schlagbaum, vice president of indirect channels for Comcast Business, in an interview with CRN. Comcast's SD-WAN service is powered by Versa Networks.

Extreme Automated Campus

By leveraging technology gained through its acquisition of Avaya's networking business, Extreme Networks launched a fully automated, end-to-end campus offering, Extreme Automated Campus. The networking offering combines Avaya's Fabric Connect infrastructure with Extreme's Management Center and support services. The offering integrates the two portfolios at a management and software layer, enabling network managers to use Avaya's Fabric Connect and Fabric Attach through Extreme Management Center with the ability to mix and match hardware.

Extreme also unveiled two fabric-enabled hardware platforms for high-performance 10/40/100-Gbps aggregation and core networking. Extreme's VSP 8600 is a 7RU form factor core chassis with over 21 Tbps of switching capacity; while the VSP 8404C is a 2RU modular core form factor with four pluggable slots for flexible deployment options.

HPE's New StoreFabric Switch Line

HPE's new StoreFabric M-series Ethernet switch family is designed and optimized for high performance, flexibility and value for all storage environments. The series provides high bandwidth and low latency to connect primary, secondary, hyper-converged, NAS or object storage systems.

HPE's StoreFabric SN2100M switches supports up to 128 ports of 10/25/40/50/100-GbE, delivering predictable performance and zero packet loss at line-rate across each port and packet size. The new SN2410 top-of-rack switches have an entry point of 24 ports and a pay-as-you-grow model with a software license.

The SN2700M switches deliver predictable and consistent throughput regardless of the packet size being transferred, the mixture of ports and even within mixed speed environments. The 2700M supports up to 64 ports of 10/25/40/50/100-GbE.

LogicMonitor's LM Cloud

SaaS-based monitoring provider LogicMonitor unleashed LM Cloud that gives users real-time, data-driven insight into every potentially impactful component of their cloud deployment. The offering leverages resource performance monitoring, cloud provider monitoring and detailed ROI analysis. LM Cloud enables the monitoring of services and applications running in the cloud with support for Azure and AWS.

LM Cloud has built-in intelligence to enable automated discovery of an entire cloud environment so customers can monitor their cloud within minutes. The software's automatically generated dashboards provide an overview into every component of an organization's cloud deployment.

Polycom Trio 8500

Polycom's new Trio 8500 three-legged conference phone system delivers HD voice audio, a touch-screen interface and the vendor's NoiseBlock technology. The system includes Microsoft Exchange calendar integration and will be expandable to include video and content sharing later in 2017.

The 8500 supports multi-line registration to enable businesses to easily migrate between open SIP environments, Skype for Business environments, or both. The system also works with other cloud-based platforms from vendors such as Cisco, Zoom, Avaya and BlueJeans Network.

Zoom Brings Augmented Reality, AI To Conferencing

Videoconferencing specialist Zoom unveiled a Meeting Transcripts feature for its conferencing software that converts all speech from a meeting into text and even identifies each speaker. The feature leverages artificial intelligence to create searchable transcripts of video meetings, eliminating the need to take notes.

Zoom also formed an integration partnership with augmented reality vendor Meta to make it possible to share and manipulate 3-D models in real time on a Zoom video call. Users conducting a presentation can now talk with a 3-D virtual tour that attendees can view without needing special hardware.