Abstract

Extreme commissioned The Tolly Group to audit a series of network tests at the company’s Santa Clara, Calif. headquarters in December 2004 to demonstrate that it has made significant strides with its ExtremeWare XOS™ to address the unique needs of convergence in the enterprise. According to Extreme Networks, ExtremeWare XOS has been shipping on the vendor’s BlackDiamond 10K series switches since December 2003 and now is available on Extreme’s newest platform, the Aspen 8800 series switch line.

Extreme representatives worked alongside The Tolly Group to conduct a series of tests on ExtremeWare XOS ver. 11.1.1.7 running on a BlackDiamond 10808 core Gigabit Ethernet switch and also on the company’s newest switch, the Aspen 8810.

In every instance, the ExtremeWare XOS demonstrated significant design advances that mirror some of the capabilities offered on a carrier network level. Tests illustrate that Extreme has architected its next-generation OS with a high degree of modularity, which allows its products to avoid downtime at all costs, embedded new levels of security intelligence to enable its switches to be proactive in dealing with security threats, and provided resiliency features to enable switches to keep operating even when changes or additions are being made to the core OS.