Dell Computer Corp. has extended its PowerConnect switch line to include two new products for small and midsized businesses.
For small and medium businesses that want to upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet without adding to the complexity of their systems, Dell on Wednesday released the PowerConnect 2508. With eight ports, the 2508 provides traffic aggregation and connectivity for servers and workstations. To connect high-speed desktops, notebooks, workstations or printers to a server or backbone switch, Dell launched the PowerConnect 2124, a 24-port Fast Ethernet switch.
The Austin, Texas, manufacturer champions the switches ease of use, their plug-and-play capability and an option for redundant power.
The technology group at Colliers Internationals Seattle office buys all of its PCs, notebook computers and edge servers from Dell, so when Dell leapt into the telecommunications networking arena with a set of managed and unmanaged switches last fall, it made sense for Colliers to try out the computer makers networking gear.
“Dell support has always been excellent,” said David Bobzien regional technology manager at Colliers in Seattle. “The Dell switch is menu-driven. For manageability, that takes a load off, especially when you talk about man hours.”
Bobzien, who has been testing the PowerConnect 3024 in Colliers Seattle office since September, said he plans to deploy the switch in as many as 10 offices in the western United States and Canada this year. Bobzien said he had tested a switch from a more networking-centric vendor, but the connectivity after installation was not satisfactory.
Commercial real estate agents, Colliers employees regularly transmit a high volume of large files with photos of buildings. “With the Dell switch, you dont have any bottleneck of traffic,” Bobzien said. “Also, we have no interoperability issues between the network interfaces and the switch.”