Alcatel unveiled its new OmniSwitch 6850 family of stackable 10/100/1000 and 10/100/1000PoE workgroup switches, which are 10 Gigabit capable workgroup switches. The OmniSwitch 6850s are the first Alcatel switches to provide Gigabit power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, as well as offer extensive port diversity, full Alcatel Operating System (AOS) support, gigabit to the desktop, 10 Gigabit uplinks, and enhanced performance for a flexible, intelligent and highly available network.
The OmniSwitch 6850L models provide Fast Ethernet to the desktop and are software upgradeable to Gigabit. With the Gigabit Ethernet upgradeability feature, OmniSwitch 6850L switches allow the enterprise to upgrade one or more switches at a time via software, saving the cost of completely replacing the hardware.
The Alcatel OmniSwitch 6850s and 6850Ls also provide capabilities for future use such as advanced security for the edge, support for user mobility and dual IPv4/IPv6 capability.
The switches are available in 24-port and 48-port versions, with AC and DC power with standard and high-power PoE, and with or without 10-Gigabit uplinks. Eight of them can be stacked together for a total capacity of 384 Gigabit ports and 16 10-Gigabit ports. The OmniSwitch 6850 is available immediately from Alcatel resellers while the OmniSwitch 6850L will be available in summer 2006. Prices start at $3,995 list for the OmniSwitch 6850-24 model.
http://www.alcatel.com
