HP Updates 5400 Switch Portfolio for Resiliency, SDN

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HP today announced the 5400R zl2 switch series, providing an evolutionary expansion to the company’s existing 5400 switch portfolio.

There are two new HP 5400R zl2 switches, with the 5406R zl2 providing six open module slots and supporting up to 48 x 10GbE ports or 1444 10/100/1000 Mbps ports. The HP 5412R zl2 switch provides 12 open module slots and can support up to 96 x 10GbE ports or 288 10/100/1000 Mbps ports.

The big difference between the 5400 series and its predecessor series is the “R,” which HP says stands for
resiliency. HP has been in the market with various 5400 series switches since at least 2006. The first 5400 zl series switches were opened up as a network blade platform back in 2009.

Steve Brar, global product marketing manager at HP Networking, explained to Enterprise Networking Planet that among the new capabilities, the 5400R adds redundant management module capability. On the 5406R zl2, that means there are 2 power supply slots, and on the 5412R zl2, there are now 4 power supply slots.

In addition to the power supply redundancy, support for full PoE+ (Power over Ethernet) now delivers up to 30W of power on all ports.

The overall capacity of the 5400R zl2 switch series is also greater than its predecessors, thanks to an upgraded fabric capacity of up to 2Tbps via a fifth-generation ProVision ASIC.

HP 5400R

Brar noted that the 5400R fits well in campus, SMB, and enterprise environments.

“For existing customers, we are positioning the 5400R as the go-to product for expansion or new deployments,” Brar said. “Customers can also benefit from investment protection, as their existing interface modules will work in the new 5400R chassis.”

Additionally, the 5400R series provides support for HP’s expanding Software Defined Networking (SDN) effort. The 5400R supports the OpenFlow 1.3 protocol and is compatible with HP’s VAN (Virtual Application Networking) SDN controller.

HP first announced its VAN SDN vision in 2012 and has been steadily delivering components ever since. Key to the VAN approach are the applications, which include security and unified communications tools.

“Today we have customers using our Network Optimizer for Lync and Network Protector SDN apps with the existing 5400 switch in production environments,” Brar said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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