Switch Vendor Blade Network Raises Funding

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Blade Network Technologies specializes in Ethernet switches for blade servers, and is also a player in the market for 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches. The company was fortmed in 2002 as a dvision of Nortel networks, but was spun off by founder Vikram Mehta in 2006 with the backing of Garnett & Helfrich.

Server vendor NEC is one of Blade's partners, as are HP, IBM and Verari Systems. NEC executive Hajime Fukuzawa will join Blade’s board of directors as part of the investment.

Blade says it will use the investment to accelerate research and development and expand global sales and marketing.

"We are proud that world-class companies have joined our founding investor Garnett & Helfrich Capital to back our vision of revolutionizing high-speed networking for the world’s largest data centers," said Mehta, the president and CEO of Blade. “This strategic investment from world leaders will fuel the acceleration of our pace-setting business performance."

“Blade is well aligned with Juniper Networks in our commitment to reduce the total cost of network ownership while providing the high performance, scalability and virtualization required by today’s dynamic data center environments,” said David Yen, executive vice president and general manager, Fabric and Switching Technologies Business Group at Juniper Networks. “We are delighted to invest in Blade Network Technologies to address some of the most challenging connectivity needs for next-generation networks.”