SAN JOSE, USA: NETGEAR, Inc., a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced that The Tolly Group, the industry's premier independent IT test lab, certified two of its Fully Managed 10/100/1000 Switches for growing Small- to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) as "Up to Spec," a designation that indicates these products perform "as advertised."

NETGEAR's ProSafe(R) 24-Port Gigabit L2 Managed Switch with Static Routing (GSM7224R) and 48-Port Gigabit L3 Managed Stackable Switch (GSM7352S) received the sought-after certification as a result of a network-edge-to-core connectivity test for interoperability with a Cisco Catalyst 6509 switch.

Additionally, NETGEAR's GSM7224R outperformed competing switches from HP and Linksys, a division of Cisco, in separate tests for the "Tolly Verified" (TV) validation program.

Said Kevin Tolly, CEO of The Tolly Group, "NETGEAR's Fully Managed business switching portfolio offers a wide range of products for the network edge and aggregation. These switches can be managed via a standard command line interface or via a Web-based GUI, offering a wide range of Layer 2 and Layer 3 features. In a recent test conducted by Tolly Group, engineers showed NETGEAR Fully Managed switches outperformed competitive HP and Linksys switches in performance, scalability, features and functions.

"Also, when today's enterprise network architects look for LAN access technology they want products and solutions that not only interoperate seamlessly with existing hardware, but are also future-proofed. In configurations where multi-vendor networks are deployed, interoperability is essential in order to ensure that products deliver the applications and business enabling features in a single network infrastructure. NETGEAR Fully Managed switches implement features and functions based on standards, and are thereby interoperable with other vendors."

The Tolly Group's thorough evaluation of NETGEAR's GSM7224R and GSM7352S examined the switches as aggregation or edge switches for interoperability with a switch commonly found anchoring the core of business networks. Key interoperability features were tested using several Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3 features such as 10/100/1000 BASE-T Auto-Negotiation, Spanning Tree Protocol support and Link Aggregation protocols, as well as IP Static Routing. The results showed that both switches successfully demonstrated interoperability with these features, ensuring that the network would be adaptable to changing conditions and maintain support for business-critical applications.


NETGEAR's GSM7224R was also tested separately for its Layer 2, zero-loss, bidirectional throughput, feature set and functionalities in comparison to HP's ProCurve Switch 2824 and Linksys' SGE2000. The NETGEAR GSM7224R was "Tolly Verified" for offering superior scalability, a broader feature set, and reduced energy consumption -- with a better overall value in terms of cost-of-ownership. The GSM7224R was noted for costing half as much as HP's switch to deliver a Gigabit of throughput, while also using 13-38% less energy than the HP and Linksys units tested.


"We're extremely pleased with recent test results by The Tolly Group as they're validating our strong commitment and successful execution in developing industry leading switches for the SMB market," stated Sanjay Kumar, director of product marketing for switching products at NETGEAR. "SMB adoption is based on myriad factors from reliable high-end performance and advanced features to manageability and affordability. We're very proud of our GSM series switches as they embody these criteria and interoperate with a switch often found at the core of business networks. That, combined with the fact that we're outpacing the competition in all the important areas, will help us reach an even greater number of end customers looking for optimum, scalable switching solutions."