BANGALORE, INDIA: Foundry Networks Inc., a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, has announced advanced stateful UDP-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) load balancing for Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions, role-based user management tool, and enhanced graphical user interface (GUI) for its award-winning modular- and chassis-based ServerIron family of application delivery switches.  A fully field-upgradeable software enhancement, TrafficWorks Release 10.2 (TW10.2), delivers added value to enterprises and service providers by integrating role-based management and SIP load balancing capabilities with integrated security features to maintain always-on services and enhanced network protection; organizations can effectively control application access, maintain greater network traffic visibility, and optimize business continuity within their application delivery infrastructure while reducing ongoing operational expenditures.

According to the Dell'Oro Group's Ethernet Switch Report (3Q07), worldwide vendor revenue for Layer 4-7 server switches (modular and fixed) is estimated to grow 20 percent for 2008 to more than $1.3 billion, demonstrating solid growing demand for this solution. For most enterprises and service providers, IP-based applications are a fundamental component of daily business operations.  Additionally, application delivery switching solutions have become increasingly important in real-world enterprise deployments of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based infrastructures.  Enterprise and service provider IT administrators recognize significant value in simplifying usability and the capability to effectively manage multiple applications behind a single application delivery controller (ADC) to control access privileges for administrators and users of various applications, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and collaboration tools. Further application protocol awareness for popular open protocols like SIP, which has driven VoIP adoption, is an important feature for ADCs. ServerIron is tested and proven to interoperate with universally deployed enterprise applications from BEA, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, leading to reduced risk, lower implementation costs and faster deployments.

"As enterprises and service providers evolve, they require advanced application switching solutions that ease implementation, offer greater network visibility and deliver a sophisticated feature set," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for Infonetics Research, Inc. "The latest TrafficWorks update addresses these requirements by adding a role-based management tool, advanced SIP load balancing and an enhanced GUI, allowing organizations to reduce implementation and ongoing maintenance costs."

Primary Feature Enhancements for TrafficWorks 10.2

• Stateful UDP-based SIP Load Balancing for VoIP Solutions – As VoIP adoption increases, quickly replacing legacy Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) in enterprises worldwide, performance, scalability, high reliability and security of voice traffic is a fundamental requirement.  UDP-based SIP is one of the common deployments of SIP and stateful capabilities help in call control and accounting. Stateful SIP capabilities provide connection persistence in SIP deployments in addition to providing increased visibility to SIP data flows. 
• Role-based Management – Role-based management enables effective provisioning of essential IT services to virtually every group within an organization from marketing and sales to engineering and human resources. Further, for hosting service providers, it empowers their customers to manage and control their own applications. Role-based management enables system administrators to create multiple contexts and assign different access privileges to different application users within these contexts. 
• Enhanced GUI – The ServerIron family now features a newly enhanced, intuitive GUI that allows IT administrators to efficiently manage network resources and application traffic through ServerIron.