APPLICATIONS

Sandia National Laboratories and 25 Percent of the Top 50 High-Performance Computing Networks Demand Foundry to Power their Infrastructure and Gain Industry-Leading Power Efficiency: Foundry Networks has announced Sandia National Laboratories, a nation-leading science-based systems engineering laboratory, selected multiple Foundry NetIron MLX-32 MPLS routers for their industry-leading 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) density, performance and computing power while significantly reducing its costly energy consumption overhead. Sandia installed the NetIron MLX-32 to expand and extend the capabilities of its supercomputer, Red Storm. By installing the world’s most dense and efficient routers within Red Storm’s high-performance input/output system, Sandia is able to maximize research and development cycles through its geographically distributed external Sandia and tri-lab networks and data center. Currently ranked in the top 12 on the global TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, Red Storm is a massive parallel processing supercomputer at Sandia and one of the Advanced Simulation & Computing supercomputers dominating world computing records. With the sheer amount of data that Red Storm is able to process, it was imperative that Sandia selected the highest performing networking router available. The NetIron MLX-32, which is capable of forwarding up to 7.68 terabits per second per chassis, exceeded requirements to manage, switch and route the traffic to and from the supercomputers. Utilizing previous generations of Foundry switches and routers for Red Storm’s routing needs, Sandia turned to Foundry again to meet important performance, density, scalability and lower power consumption requirements. Representing a major breakthrough in router performance and capacity, the NetIron MLX-32 routers offer Sandia unparalleled switching and routing capacity, data throughput, and up to 128 ports of line-rate 10GbE or 1536 ports of GbE connectivity while also allowing them to consolidate many chassis. This not only provides extremely compelling economies of scale, but also delivers unparalleled initial and ongoing energy efficiency and cost savings not possible with alternative solutions on the market. Alongside high performance and lower total cost of ownership (TCO), the NetIron MLX-32s provides exceptional scalability future headroom, capacity, and reliability when compared to other offerings. With the expansion of Red Storm, Sandia was aware other factors, such as power usage, cooling requirements, space efficiency and reliability, were important to consider as well. The NetIron MLX-32’s capabilities addressed all of these necessities by delivering significantly the industry’s lowest combination of power, cooling and space requirements. “Foundry routers have been the integral high-performance routing platform of our Red Storm supercomputing network from the very start,” said John Naegle, senior engineer for Sandia. “We require the highest performance, density, reliability and efficiency from the switches and routers in our demanding network. The NetIron MLX-32 offers us incredible performance, the ability to bond up to 32 ports of 10GbE for maximum interconnect density, an exceptional feature set, as well as excellent total cost of ownership. The NetIron MLX-32 provides us major savings in regards to lower power consumption, cooling requirements, maintenance, and space efficiency. Our technical evaluation indicated that the NetIron MLX-32’s best met our requirements for 10GbE density and capabilities.” Sandia National Laboratories develops and applies advanced technology to national security initiatives for the United States government. Their discoveries and research have led to many major national security and general public contributions over its 56-year history. Sandia currently employs about 8,500 people and manages approximately $2.3 billion of work annually. It is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy with other major funding by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense, and is managed by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Sandia regularly partners with other government, industry, and academic institutions to accomplish their scientific research. “We are very pleased to have Sandia continue its long relationship with Foundry by installing the NetIron MLX-32 routers into its supercomputing network,” said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager for Foundry’s High-End and Service Provider Systems Business Unit. “With Sandia’s demanding national security research and high-performance computing demands, the NetIron MLX-32 is an ideal solution with its industry-leading 10GbE density, feature set, routing performance and efficiency. Sandia will be well equipped to handle its current supercomputing needs today and retain the headroom it will need in the future.”