NEC
Corporation of America (NEC), a leading technology integrator
providing solutions that improve the way people work and communicate,
today announced the launch of Version 6 of its award-winning
ProgrammableFlow SDN Networking Suite.
Pay-as-you-Grow Pricing
The new release includes a new pricing scheme for the ProgrammableFlow
Controller that is based on network capacity. With the new pricing,
network operators can deploy an SDN network that meets their current
needs and then cost-effectively scales as the network grows. NEC
introduces a ProgrammableFlow SDN Starter Pack, which is priced starting
at $3,000 and provides the features of the ProgrammableFlow Controller
software, but is designed for smaller SDN deployments, including
departmental or lab deployments. The network easily scales up as
capacity requirements grow.
“The new pricing enables customers to deploy networks of any size to
seize the operational and performance benefits of Open Networking,” said
Don Clark, director, business development, NEC Corporation of America.
“We are confident that once our customers experience the benefits of
SDN, they will make it a part of their IT infrastructure.”
Expanded Capabilities for Campus Networks
NEC is also adding new capabilities to Version 6 that address challenges
customers have in campus deployments. With this release, network
architects can build larger, more reliable, wide-area Ethernet fabrics
that stretch across the campus or metro area. Combined with network
virtualization, these new capabilities enable network operators to
deploy converged network fabrics across remote sites, reducing the need
for the costly network hardware required by most traditional networks.
SDN for campus networks improves service agility through simplified
operations and greater traffic visibility, as compared to traditional
networks.
"Marist College has benefited from using SDN as a network management
tool since we deployed an OpenFlow-based SDN campus network more than a
year ago to interconnect three college data centers," said Robert
Cannistra, professor of Computer Science and IT at Marist College.
"We've found that the dynamic nature of SDN helps us take full advantage
of our network infrastructure and gives us more control in determining
what network traffic takes priority. NEC is at the forefront of this
technology as it continually adds new functionality such as path policy,
automation, link aggregation and security to its SDN solution. It has
the most comprehensive feature-rich SDN solution on the market today."
Evaluation Now Available
ProgrammableFlow Version 6 is now available as a free download.
Customers can evaluate how fabric-based SDN can increase network service
agility, boost performance and reduce downtime throughout the
organization. Downloads of the evaluation software are available at: www.necam.com/sdn.