GEC NEWS WIREInnovations in network analytics, new BYOD and Unified Access capabilities help support improved rating
Industry analyst firm, Current Analysis has improved Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s rating to “Very Strong” in a recent campus LAN switching product assessment, matching one other vendor as the highest rated in the LAN switching industry. New technologies, such as the latest addition of the OmniSwitch 6860 advanced LAN switch positions Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to offer a comprehensive LAN switching portfolio from data center and core to distribution and access.
Innovative capabilities, including embedded analytics on the new OmniSwitch 6860, integration with ClearPass access management software for full BYOD capabilities, and Unified Access through a converged wired and wireless management platform, helped support the improved rating.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s portfolio diversity was also credited with being “Very Strong” because it offers a full range of products from 10/100 Mbps access switches to high-density 40GbE core switches.
Key strengths
Total cost of ownership: The OmniSwitch family of stackable and modular switches is future-proofed with the ability to upgrade to higher-speed interfaces via software without replacing existing hardware. This is important for network infrastructures that are evolving from a 1GbE to a 10GbE backbone.
Also contributing to the lower TCO are switches designed for low power consumption.
Network analytics on the OmniSwitch 6860 provides detailed visibility of network flows and the bandwidth used by each application, allowing network administrators to easily configure policy-based controls based on user, device and application and enforce prioritization, QoS and security at the edge of the network.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise offers the Application Fluent Network (AFN), which detects and classifies traffic at the network edge and then applies access and QoS policies through the network.
Highly scalable and technologically advanced portfolio as many of the OmniSwitch products support true standards-based multi-path technology with Shortest Path Bridging (SPB), enabling any-to-any connectivity.
Current Analysis product assessment ratings are published bi-annually. This report is available here for download.
