Netgear Introduces Line of Gigabit Smart Switches with PoE and Stacking
New smart switches for SMBs are industry’s first gigabit switches that also feature PoE and stacking on the same platform, says Netgear.
San Jose, Calif.-based networking provider Netgear, Inc. has announced two new ProSafe Advanced Gigabit Smart Switches, the GS724TPS and GS748TPS. They are the industry’s first and only Gigabit Smart Switches designed for SMBs that combine Gigabit connectivity, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), and stacking on the same platform, according to Netgear, making them ideal for supporting converged networks.
More and more SMB customers are recognizing the benefits of converged networks that include wireless, VoIP, and data not only for cost savings, but also for business efficiency and enhanced services. The GS7xxTPS series is designed to help SMBs easily migrate their current infrastructure to a converged network that may include wireless LANs, VoIP phones, or IP-PBXs and video teleconferencing. With PoE capabilities on all ports and Auto Voice VLAN features, the switches can help customers easily set up the PoE-enabled IP phones and wireless access points wherever they want, without changing the wiring infrastructure. In addition, the first four ports on each switch can also support PoE, based on the IEEE802.3at draft standards, providing up to 30W to higher-powered PoE devices such as multichannel wireless access points, pan-tilt-zoomed IP cameras, and touch-screen IP phones. One GS7xxTPS switch provides SMBs with all their PoE needs now as well as for the future.
“As SMBs continue to leverage VoIP, wireless, and other converged network technologies to make their businesses more productive and streamline their networks, they require advanced switching infrastructure that supports their needs now and in the future,” says Maggie Wu, Netgear’s product line manager for smart switching products. “Our ProSafe GS7xxTPS Series of Advanced Gigabit Smart Switches meets these requirements to support key applications such as VoIP-based call centers, branch/remote offices, and organizations with unified wireless and wireline networks.”
There are two dedicated HDMI ports delivering up to 20 Gbps stacking bandwidth on each switch. Customers can stack up to 6 switches or 288 ports together and manage them with a single IP address. The stacking features also include redundancy and are hot-swappable. Since they are extensions of the same Netgear Gigabit Stackable Smart Switch family, the GS724TPS and GS748TPS can be stacked with the GS7xxTS switches (GS724TS and GS748TS).
The switches also come with a suite of features such as access control lists (ACL), 802.1x port authentication, enhanced QoS, rate limiting and IGMP snooping, among others, to provide SMB businesses with more robust security, higher quality of service, and high availability. A Web-browser interface can be used to configure features as well as monitor and troubleshoot.
Full 24/7 technical support connects SMBs directly with switching experts. The GS724TPS and the GS748TPS will be available worldwide in July 2009 from value-added resellers and leading direct marketers at estimated U.S. street prices starting from $900 and $1,700, respectively. All ProSafe products carry a Netgear Lifetime Warranty and optional ProSupport Maintenance Packages. More information on Netgear’s full line of ProSafe Advanced Smart Switches is available at www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/AdvancedSmartSwitches.aspx.
