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Networking specialist Netgear announced the release of the ProSafe Intelligent Edge M4100 series of managed switches, a portfolio of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet access layer solutions for small and midize businesses (SMBs) and other networks supporting fewer than 500 users.
The series consists of 12 fully managed switch products in desktop and rackmount form factors, ranging from 8-port Fast Ethernet and Power over Ethernet (PoE) to 50-port Gigabit Ethernet and PoE Plus (up to 30W), and power budgets ranging from 66W to 1,440W. The ProSafe Intelligent Edge M4100 series will become available in April through a variety of Netgear PowerShift partners.
While the company noted pricing for the ustomer may vary depending on the reseller, individual prices for the 12 switches in the United States start at $310, and the M4100 series starts at $19 per port for Fast Ethernet PoE models, and at $32 per port for Gigabit PoE+ models.
The switches offer enhanced security and availability, including network access control and isolation, Spanning Tree topology enforcement, denial-of-service protection and power redundancy. Also on tap is supplemental PoE power and improved convergence of voice, video and data, such as automatic configuration of IP phones, multicast filtering and multicast VLAN registration (MVR) Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) forwarding, and private VLAN Layer 2 isolation across the entire network.
“Networking is a critical underpinning of IT infrastructure, and as organizations deploy more demanding new applications and services, we’ve seen a significant uptick in demand for advanced switching solutions over the past year,” Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research, said in a statement. “The new M4100 series of managed switches strike the right balance between delivering advanced features and maintaining a competitive price structure, making them a perfect fit for smaller businesses and cost-conscious organizations who need high value and a rapid return on their IT investments.”
The M4100 series also offer both redundant and external power supply capability, important for applications such as VOIP, IP surveillance and wireless access points, and select desktop switches in the M4100 series can be powered by PoE as a cost-effective solution when there is no existing wiring, as the switch can draw power from the wiring closet.
“We’ve recently noticed the rapid proliferation of entry-level managed switches aimed at SMBs which are deficient in both hardware and software features, so we decided to address this opportunity,” Maggie Wu, senior product line manager for Netgear Switching Products, said in a statement. “Netgear has developed the M4100 Series for smaller networks, at a competitive price point, but packed with the latest feature enhancements of higher end, more demanding solutions traditionally designed for the enterprise market. We’re confident that alternative solutions for SMBs simply do not offer the breadth of features we’ve built into the M4100 series.”