Ruckus Networks has announced the availability of its new ICX 7850 switch: an edge-to-core solution for the next decade of enterprise networking.

Ruckus’ stackable ICX 7850 delivers high-density aggregation for 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE, 50GbE, and 100GbE using existing customer investment in fibre cabling, making it suitable for large, secure enterprise edge networks in education, government and enterprise settings.

The pay-as-you-grow design enables enterprise-scale networks to keep pace with advances in wireless technologies – such as 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), IoT and LTE – to accommodate continued multi-gigabit network growth.

“The ever-increasing need for Wi-Fi connectivity is taxing network cores, but the solution to keeping up with the proliferation of devices and advances in wireless technology does not need to be complex or expensive,” says Siva Valliappan, vice-president of wired products at Ruckus Networks. “The Ruckus ICX 7850 switch simplifies multi-gigabit network upgrades and reduces the total cost for enterprises through its ability to scale quickly and linearly to address current and future network demands.”

The ICX 7850’s advanced stacking capabilities can scale up to 12 switches, which rivals the density of traditional chassis-based data centre and enterprise switches. The hitless stack failover, multi-chassis trunking, and in-service software upgrades eliminate downtime.

The available SmartZone network controller enables configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting for the entire Ruckus ICX switch portfolio and wireless access point network. This highly scalable approach is easier to manage with reduced power and cooling requirements and a lower total cost of ownership.

The ICX 7850, along with all switches in the Ruckus portfolio, support the latest security standards and encryption technologies. ICX switches have been deployed in the U.S. federal government for over two decades and comply with the most stringent security standards and federal certifications including FIPS, Common Criteria, CSfC, and JITC. The ICX 7850 also supports Media Access Control Security (MACsec), a Layer 2 security technology, based on symmetric cryptographic keys, to provide point-to-point security on Ethernet links between nodes.

Many organisations, particularly school districts with older, existing networks that have OM1 or OM2 fibre optic cables require Long Reach Multimode (LRM) optics to achieve the 10 Gbps connections needed for today’s bandwidth requirements. The ICX 7850 provides investment protection and an upgrade path for customers with older fibre infrastructure by providing support for LRM optics with select family members.