Radware Relaunches Alteon Brand With New Platform

Radware is claiming to have revived the Alteon brand after it launched the first new Alteon application delivery platform in nearly six years.

Application delivery specialist Radware acquired the Alteon unit earlier this year from bankrupt communications group Nortel for an undisclosed amount. Nortel had originally bought Alteon for a whopping $7.8 billion (£4.7 billion) back in July 2000.

But now Nir Ilani, Product Marketing Director at Radware told eWEEK Europe that the Alteon brand is back with a new high-end application delivery platform, the Alteon 5412. Ilani explained that Radware was seeking to reassure Alteon customers and partners by restoring the Alteon brand and advancing the product line with the introduction of the 5412.

“Today, less than 7 months since we closed the Alteon acquisition, Radware is proud to be releasing this brand new platform,” he said. “Existing Alteon platforms have been in customer sites for 6 years now, as Nortel had not released a new Alteon product in all that time, so for our customers this is definitely big news.”

Ilani also explained the rationale behind Radware acquiring Alteon. “Firstly we have a more than 6,000 installed base, but the acquisition added a lot more customers and access to a larger market,” he said. “The second, more interesting reason, was that we really believe in the Alteon product line. Thousands of customers are still using Alteon switches and product line, and they use it because it provides clear benefits. The Alteon operating system is simple to use, and it is a high performance switch that is also very stable.”

Consequently Ilani said that Radware took the successful Alteon product line and developed a platform that included new developments, such as improving the performance by delivering up to 20Gbps of application switching throughput capacity (the old devices only provided 4Gbps throughput for example) and up to 340,000 Layer 4 transactions per second (TPS).

The 5412 also offers four 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) ports and 12 GE ports, enabling customers to process the highest network traffic capacities required by high-end data centre environments.

“In addition to that, customers need to understand that same Alteon operating system is running on this system, the OS that customers know and love, so there is no learning curve,” he said. “There is no need to redesign infrastructure, as customers will continuing enjoying the same platform.”

According to Ilani, the 5412 is only the beginning of a revised Alteon product line, customers would use the 5412 to replacing their existing products such as the 2424, 3408, and other models. He also said that this device will include global load balancing, traffic management, and software recovery from a USB port. Radware is also providing a five year platform longevity guarantee (it will sell the 5412 for at least five years – previously it used to be 2 or 3 years).

“When we acquired Alteon in March 2009, we were committed to continue to invest in the Alteon portfolio, and we now have more 100 R&D and QA personnel dedicated to Alteon product line,” said Ilani. “In addition, from the technical services viewpoint, we have recruited more than 20 Alteon specialists in our support centres, offering world class support to our Alteon customers. The 5412 is the ultimate proof point of our seriousness of our investment in the Alteon product line.”

Cost depends on the throughput licence according to Ilani. “Radware offers an on demand infrastructure approach, and as with all Radware products, customers select the throughput licence they need. If the customer needs more, they pay for the throughput capacity they need by simply enabling the new license when they need more throughput. It is a pay as you grow approach.”