Editor Contact:
Tim Shaughnessy
BLADE Network Technologies
408-850-8963

For Immediate Release

BLADE Network Technologies' "Virtual, Cooler, Easier" 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitches Provide Unique Advantages for IBM's High-Performance Cluster Computing

BLADE's RackSwitch Is the Only Switch Designed to Match the Airflow of IBM iDataPlex, While Outperforming Competitors in Price/Performance, Low Latency and Power Consumption; Visit BLADE in Booth #322 at SC08

AUSTIN, TX, November 18, 2008 -- BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE), the industry leader in network virtualization and high-performance solutions for servers and storage, announced today at SC08 that its top-of-rack, 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitch products provide superior cooling, low latency and price/performance advantages for IBM System Cluster 1350 data center building blocks including IBM's iDataPlex. In addition to integrating BLADE's RackSwitch into IBM's cluster computing solutions, IBM has been providing embedded blade server switches from BLADE, the market-leading provider of blade server networking, for IBM BladeCenter under the Nortel name. At SC08, visit IBM's booth #522 to see the latest on IBM Cluster 1350, IBM Cluster 1350 and IBM BladeCenter.

"BLADE's RackSwitch is the ideal switch for IBM System x environments because its design is a direct result of BLADE's heritage as the leading manufacturer of blade server switches and unique approach to Rackonomics for cost-effective provisioning of data center networks one rack at a time," said Dan Tuchler, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management, BLADE Network Technologies. "In addition to its extremely low latency and line-rate throughput, BLADE's RackSwitch also employs airflow and other design efficiencies with the HPC-class data center environment in mind."

According to a recent Tolly Group evaluation, BLADE's RackSwitch G8100 outperforms the Cisco 4900M by demonstrating 2x higher throughput, 12.4x lower latency, 2.7x greater energy efficiency and 6.5x better price performance. (Source: The Tolly Group Report: BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. RackSwitch G8100 Competitive Performance Evaluation versus Cisco Catalyst 4900M Switch, Copyright 2008 The Tolly Group, October, 2008.) The full summaries of the competitive performance evaluations are available at: http://www.bladenetwork.net/pages/products_rackswitch.html.

The combination of BLADE's 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitch with IBM's System Cluster 1350, iDataPlex and other blade server systems provides unique advantages for high performance computing (HPC) environments that require 10 Gigabit Ethernet line rate bandwidth, with exceptionally low latency, advanced energy efficiency and the industry's best price/performance. Providing a fully integrated solution, BLADE's RackSwitch products are the only switches specifically designed to match IBM's iDataPlex airflow.

By utilizing low-cost servers and open source software for high performance workloads, the IBM System Cluster 1350 solutions deliver significant price and performance advantages. Combined with BLADE's 10 Gigabit Ethernet RackSwitches, IBM's HPC data center customers gain the top-of-rack network performance they require to ensure the best application performance in demanding HPC-class environments.

About BLADE's RackSwitch Products

BLADE's RackSwitch G8100, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 24 lossless, low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) ports, is designed for emerging high-volume 10 GE application environments such as high-performance clusters that require latency of 300 nanoseconds or less, and/or as a 10 GE aggregation switch. BLADE's RackSwitch G8000, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for uplinks and/or stacking, is designed for rack-level server connectivity, Web 2.0 cloud clusters and/or as a Gigabit aggregation switch.

About BLADE Network Technologies

BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and "scale-out" server and storage racks. BLADE's new "virtual, cooler and easier" top-of-rack switches demonstrate the promise of "Rackonomics" -- a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company's customers include half of the Fortune 500 across 26 industry segments, and an installed base of over 200,000 network switches representing more than 1,000,000 servers and over 4.6 million switch ports. For more information, visit www.bladenetwork.net.

BLADE Network Technologies and RackSwitch are trademarks of BLADE Network Technologies. All other names or marks are property of their respective owners.

About Blade.org

Blade.org is a collaborative vendor and end-user community focused on accelerating the development and adoption of blade server solutions. The organization provides leadership to the blade market and fosters a thriving industry ecosystem focused on delivering valuable solutions to blade computing customers. More information is available at www.blade.org.

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