Alcatel-Lucent announced its new data center switching solution blueprint for enterprises which provides a complete ata center switching fabric that extends the boundaries of the data center through virtualization of the network with an innovative “mesh” architecture design. The company claims the new data centre solution helps reduces costs and allows an enterprise to leverage its IT resources and optimize application delivery to employees across sites and devices.

The rise of virtualization has made data center switching a critical piece of an IT strategy for the enterprise,” said Michel Emelianoff, Vice President and General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Networks. “As we build on our Application Fluent Network vision, our new data center switching solution is empowering enterprises to set up a virtualized network for their data centers, allowing users to easily take advantage of real-time applications from any location across any device.”

 Alcatel-Lucent’s data center switching solution delivers two architecture breakthroughs: the data center “mesh” and the “pod.” Virtualization in the data center requires enterprises to optimize server-to-server traffic while striving to reduce costs. Alcatel-Lucent’s “pod” architecture addresses this need with the new OmniSwitch 6900 by delivering a highly dense solution that allows enterprises to directly connect top-of-rack switches without relying on a core switch to carry server-to-server traffic.

Providing the ability to connect data center pods together across multiple sites, Alcatel-Lucent claims its “mesh” architecture delivers a complete switching fabric that can bring together more than 14,000 server 10Gig ports with only two core switches, delivering end-to-end latency of less than five microseconds and unmatched resiliency.