Roundup: Arista, Juniper, Emerson, Force 10

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the hardware and networking sectors:

Arista teams with VMware.  Arista Networks announced an extension of its EOS (Extensible Operating System) software capabilities with Arista VM Tracer. VM Tracer allows administrators to have seamless control through the VMware vSphere interface while poviding new levels of visibility into the virtualization layer to the network operators. "With VM Tracer, Arista has delivered the best cloud networking platform for virtualization deployments that adapt to the requirements of the virtualization platform in real-time," said Doug Gourlay, vice president of marketing at Arista Networks. The capabilities that VM Tracer provides include VM auto discovery, VM adaptive segmentation, VM host view, VMware ESX Port Profile and VM Tracer Multi-tenancy which supports connections to up to four separate VMware vCenter administrative domains with VLAN span-of-control per VMware vCenter Server instance. "Arista VM Tracer is an innovative set of software features that solves the architectural issues that arise between network and virtualization administrators," said Vanessa Alvarez, analyst at Frost and Sullivan. "This provides the network team with the visibility into the virtualization platform while giving the virtualization administrator an infrastructure layer that adapts dynamically to VMware vMotion changes."

Juniper Announces Content Delivery Appliances. Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced the availability of Juniper Networks VXA Series Media Flow Engines, a line of high-performance content delivery appliances designed to maximize the scale and reliability of Juniper's Media Flow Solution. "Our customers are looking for ways to improve their scale, drive down costs and grow revenue at the same time, and the Media Flow Solution allows them to achieve all three," said Manoj Leelanivas, executive vice president and general manager of Junos Ready Software at Juniper. Media Flow Solutions and VXA Engines are available immediately and additional information is available here.

Emerson introduces Liebert GXT3 UPS.  Emerson Network Power (EMR) introduced in North America the Liebert GXT3 UPS system in 5-10 kVA models. As an extension to the GXT3 line the new models pack higher power capacities into smaller spaces while maintaining best in class availability.  The 5 kVA and 6 kVA models require 4U of space while the 8 kVA and 10 kVA models require only 6U of space. Charles O'Donnell, vice president of engineering for the Liebert AC Power business at Emerson commented that "particularly in smaller data centers or network closets, space is at a premium. The Liebert GXT3 optimizes space with an extremely small cabinet for the provided kVA. The high output power factors of .8 for 5-6kVA models and .9 for 8-10kVA, as well as a wide voltage window, support the critical load and extend system availability.”

Force 10 selected by U.S. Auto Parts Network.  Force 10 Networks, Inc. announced that leading automotive internet retailer U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc. has deployed its C-Series resilient switches and S-Series access switches as the high performance foundation for its network upgrade. "Deploying Force10 solutions brought immediate relief by lowering network latency and significantly increasing network availability, allowing us to build on our success," said Bill Avellan, director of IT at U.S. Auto Parts Network.