The new series, a complete redesign rather than an upgrade of the series it replaces, is also priced at around half what similar switches used to go for, which Zyxel thinks will help it with small business customers.

Networking vendor Zyxel Communications has released its new XGS4600 series of switches. The new family of stackable Layer 3 Managed Switches 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports is particularly aimed at customers looking to upgrade from 1G networks.

“Large numbers of customers still buy 1G because the applications they run don’t need anything beyond that,” said Tri Nguyen, market development manager at Zyxel. “Today, the move to 802.11ac Wave 2 makes more applications exceed the capacity of a 1 GB connection. As a result, even some small businesses can have a large enough amount of data that 10GB switches are a good investment. There is a growing trend even in small businesses of local applications using 10 GB as their main connectivity because they need that connectivity to overcome the bottleneck you get from 1 GB.”

“This switch line brings Layer 3 functionality at a very competitive and affordable price for those who are looking to jump to a 10GB product,” Ngyuen added. “For many customers, this will very likely will be their first 10 GB switch – or our other one in the Layer 2 space, which is even more affordable.”

There are two members of the XGS4600 family, available as either RJ45 Ethernet Copper Ports or Gigabit Ethernet Fiber SFP versions. The XGS4600-32 features 24 Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 ports, is designed for 10 GB copper Ethernet deployments, while the XGS4600-32F is intended for fiber deployments. Both switches have a switching capacity of 136 Gbps and include four Gigabit Ethernet combo (RJ-45/SFP) ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ slots.

“This is a replacement for the XGS4500 series, but it is essentially a new series,” Nguyen said. “The 4500 is our legacy series with some uplink capabilities, but this is built from the ground up. It benefits from the feature set we have built through our managed switch line, most of which is in the Layer 2 space.”

Schools and the hospitality industry, which want video and voice to also go through interconnect, are a key target market for the family.

“It’s definitely at the higher end of our portfolio, a Layer 3 managed switch with 10 GB uplinks, although we also have offerings that are full 10 GB,” Nguyen indicated. “This one still has the 10 GB uplinks. But with 4 SMP uplinks for 10 GB, you can have two ports for 20 links of throughput as your uplink.”

The price range of this type of switch has dropped considerably.

“These have a MSP of $USD 1900, and they used to be in the $3000-$4000 range,” Nguyen said. “That’s coming down quite a bit, which makes these more affordable and cost effective.”

The XGS4600 family is available now.