Netgear Launches Affordable 16-Port 10GbE Web Managed Switch

Netgear set a new bar for the networking industry by introducing the NETGEAR ProSAFE XS716E 16-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet Web Managed (Plus) Switch to its portfolio of the industry’s first affordable 10-Gigabit Copper (10GBASE-T) switches for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The new XS716E is joining the successful XS708Ev2 8-Port version which already is on the market, but offering twice as many ports while keeping the same form factor. These 10GBASE-T offerings are available for as little as $82 per 10-Gigabit Copper Ethernet port which is quite a bit cheaper than many other 10GBASE-T solutions which easily can cost $400 per port and sometimes even more.

“The potent combination of Big Data applications, cloud services, mobile devices, and the deployment of 802.11ac WiFi is putting severe stress on networks, and not only at the enterprise level,” said Richard Jonker, vice president of product line management for SMB products at NETGEAR. “We’ve designed our 10-Gigabit Switching products like the XS716E 16-port Ethernet Web Managed Switch to help price-sensitive small and medium-sized customers who are eager to implement 10-Gigabit solutions to improve network capacity, speed, and performance, but who have been shut out by cost until now. Essentially, NETGEAR is breaking the price barrier for 10Gig switches, we are offering management capabilities unseen before at this price category.”

The ProSAFE XS716E provides sixteen 10G copper connectivity ports, with one shared (combination) 10G SFP+ fiber port. With a switch like this, it’s very easy to migrate from traditional Gigabit Ethernet to 10GBASE-T as customers can continue to use the previously deployed Cat6 or Cat7 copper cables and thereby improve the network capabilities tenfold.

It features all the fundamentals that unmanaged switches don’t. These features, for optimizing network performance, include VLAN support, QoS, IGMP snooping, port trunking/link aggregation, rate limiting, and traffic monitoring. The XS716E is ideal for smaller organizations considering a simple and affordable 10GbE connectivity for their 10G-capable servers and storage devices, or as an aggregation switch for a multiple-layer network.

The NETGEAR ProSAFE XS716E 16-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet Web Managed (Plus) Switch is available now worldwide. Depending on the reseller and bundled offerings, the expected street price in the U.S. is less than $1,300. While that might sound like a lot, it’s still a lot less that other 10GbE offerings and it includes Netgear’s  lifetime hardware warranty, lifetime next business day shipping for part replacement, and lifetime technical support.