The Glimmerglass solutions give you the best of both worlds: the guaranteed bandwidth of a layer-1 physical fiber link, with the flexibility of automatic switching that’s traditionally associated only with layer 2 or 3 network elements. More than that, though, it offers you the ability to more directly tie together your networks at layer 1 – delivering superior bandwidth connection performance at a fraction of the cost.
Reduce expensive 10GigE interfaces
Need to add redundant fiber paths between network elements to ensure communications integrity, avoiding network outages? If so, you need to buy redundant 10GigE interfaces for the network switches and routers at each end of the connection. That’s expensive. Consider a better, more economical approach. Use Glimmerglass switches to create and manage scalable, redundant and resilient connections at the physical layer. You can skip having to purchase twice the number of expensive Ethernet and IP routing interfaces – saving you a bundle!
No cost to handle data
At 10 Gbit/s, our switch typically costs 10x less per port than a layer-2 Ethernet switch, and 100x less per port than a layer-3 router. Switching above layer 1 requires the data to be ‘handled’ in some way, and that costs time and money. Why pay for that when you don’t need it? Use the Glimmerglass switch whenever your data’s destination is pre-determined by the application.
Don’t pay twice
You don’t know what the future will bring. But if the past is any guide, keeping up will be costly. So take the chance to future-proof your network against growth in bandwidth demands and changes in protocols and interfaces. The Glimmerglass switch is compatible with any interface and protocol because it switches data as light. And it’s been tested to perform superbly at 40 Gbit/s per connection.
Fiber management improves availability
How much does it cost you when a connection fails, the network goes down, and you need to wait for an engineer to fix the problem or refiber a work-around? Let our switch test, monitor, and even fix the network for you – instantly, automatically, cost-effectively. You can monitor and control individual fiber configurations remotely, easily, instantly, 24/7.
Save on test equipment
Share monitoring or testing equipment by using our switch to connect it to multiple fibers. This is even more cost-effective if you take advantage of our asymmetrical option and use most of the switch’s ports as outputs (or vice versa). You’ll get more use from a smaller switch, saving you money.
The value of performance
Because the switch does not regenerate signals, or ‘touch’ the data it connects in any way, throughput is deterministic, latency-free, guaranteed. You no longer need to overprovision bandwidth just in case network congestion affects performance. Performance improves when you dynamically establish 10GigE data circuits for applications that benefit from layer 1 connectivity. Avoid unnecessarily taxing your IP routers as you add new 10GigE interfaces to get the highest network performance at the lowest costs.
Control the cost of change
When you need to change network configurations, especially if it’s a major upgrade, you know there are usually teething problems. Have a backup plan in place that can instantly be put into action. Use the Glimmerglass switch to save tried-and-tested setups so they can be restored if something goes wrong, keeping the network up while you sort out the problem.
We’ll prove the benefits
We’ll come to your site and give you a demonstration of how the Glimmerglass intelligent optical switch can work for you. Contact us now.
