10GbE Networking - Now Affordable

It’s finally here. 10GbE is now affordable thanks to Netgear.

10GbE (also known as 10 Gigabit) has been around for a good few years now, but has only been available to organisations with deep pockets and the technology was only available from a select few vendors such as Cisco and Foundry Networking.

Fortunately though now, Netgear, a manufacturer of quality business and consumer networking switches, routers and firewalls has launched a range of 10GbE switches, designed for both small businesses, up through to core networks within enterprise/large corporates.

Their product line-up is quite large, starting from traditional 24/48 port Gigabit switches with 10GbE uplinks, all the way to small 10GbE desktop size pedigree 10GbE.

In case you didn’t know, 10GbE is 10,000 Megabits. Many networks are now on 1 Gigabit, but imagine upgrading this to 10 times that speed.

10GbE is generally used for core networking at present – allowing 10GbE enabled switches to uplink and link together at a much faster speed, reducing bottlenecks at core networks. It is also excellent for end-user connectivity where large amounts of bandwidth are required – we supply 10GbE for server and desktop connectivity to one of our customers who do a lot of animation and rendering. Their workstations have 10GbE Copper (CAT6 cabling) going straight to the network core. Their servers are then dual-path 10GbE connected, so the file transfers from server to desktop are lightning fast.

I have put together a small list of the Netgear products we have found to be excellent value and are becoming a big seller for us.

XS712T
12-Port 10GbE Smart Switch



This model is by far our best seller – at under £1000 it is an absolute bargain. This 1U Rackmount switch won’t look out of place in the heart of any network. It is quiet in operation, and easy to manage. It has 12x 10GbE ports, all of which are Copper. There are also 2x 1 Gigabit (SFP) uplink ports too, so you can connect this to some existing servers or switches.

More information on this product can be found on our site here; www.servercase.co.uk/shop/quick/XS712T-100NES/

XSM7224S
24-Port 10GbE Fully Managed Layer 2 Switch



This model is the XS712T’s bigger brother. It has 24x 10GbE SFP+ ports, which can accommodate a variety of 10GbE modules. These can be fibre, copper or straight-through cables. The fibre modules can support short and long haul applications. Copper is more popular for localised installations, but allows for shorter cable lengths. The straight-through cables are literally an SFP+ cable on both ends, so you can connect this switch directly to a nearby server, or another 10GbE switch with an SFP+ port. Note however that these straight-through cables are only around 3m in length maximum, so are best suited for a single rack setup.

More information on this product can be found on our site here; www.servercase.co.uk/shop/quick/XSM7224S-100EUS/

If you would like to discuss your requirements or would like to talk to a member of our sales team about the best way to upgrade your existing network, or to implement a new 10GbE network, please contact us or give us a call on 0800 652 1649. We would be happy to help.