Aggressive new pricing on Rapier^™ 24 switch makes high-performance L3 ultra-affordable for K-12 and HED, while delivering advanced routing and security features the competition doesn't have

January 29, 2001- Allied Telesyn International (www.alliedtelesyn.com), a worldwide leader in simplifying IP networking for businesses of all sizes, today announced its newest, very aggressive move in Layer 3 switching. At only $99 per 10/100TX port, the Rapier™ 24 high-performance 24-port Layer 3 standalone switch is a compelling price leader - almost 50% less than the competition². Price being only one of the leadership qualities of the Rapier™ 24 switch, Allied Telesyn is mounting a campaign to educate users on the benefits of Rapier’s superior performance, advanced feature sets and quality support. Rapier™ 24 is the clear leader on all counts, and is poised to take market share.

Based on the latest in high-level integration ASIC technology, the Rapier™ 24 Fast Ethernet Layer 3 switch exploits Allied Telesyn’s proven software expertise to deliver a non-blocking, wire-speed IP switching solution, with optional Gigabit uplinks and direct WAN connections, at a compelling price point. In fact, at its new U.S. Education MSRP of just $2399 - 44% lower than Extreme’s Summit 24² - the Rapier™ 24 makes it possible for more networks to benefit from the many advantages offered by Layer 3 traffic management for data, voice and video.

"With the Rapier 24, and the entire Rapier line, we are demonstrating our commitment to being the mass market’s Layer 3 switching solution," said Jim Berthot, Allied Telesyn’s Head of the Americas and Senior Vice-President. "At nearly half the price of the competition’s closest product, Rapier 24 is a force to be reckoned with. The market and customers will take notice, and when they do, they’ll see that the switch is not only very richly-featured with formidable performance, but the most economical full Layer 3 standalone switch money can buy. We intend to make a very significant impact with this technology – bringing truly affordable Layer 3 switching to our chosen markets."

With 24 x 10/100Base-TX ports, two front-panel bays for optional Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and a rear-panel Network Service Module (NSM) bay for optional direct WAN connections, Rapier™ 24 is not only the ‘fullest’ of full Layer 3 switches, but it is also the most flexible and scalable. It is even available in a -48V DC power supply version. With that kind of flexibility, the full-featured Rapier™ 24 is a great choice for a host of applications, including desktop or workstation aggregation switching, workgroup or departmental distribution switching, server farm aggregation and WAN access routing for campus-wide connectivity.