K9N70 - Dell Force 10 Z Series Z9000 32-Port 40GbE QSFP+ Core Router Switch

The Dell Force10 Z9000 is a compact next generation switch/ router product designed to meet the requirements for high density 10/40 GbE aggregation in a data center core network. The Z9000 switch is designed to address data center 10/40 GbE aggregation requirements through Centralized Core or Distributed Core architectures for High Performance Enterprise data centers, High Performance Computing Cores, Cloud Computing Cores, Provider Hosted data centers and Enterprise LAN Cores. The Z9000 switch can be positioned as a Core switch or End-of-Row switch within a data center. The Z9000 product can support 32 ports of 40 GbE QSFP+ or 128 ports of 10 GbE SFP+ realized through breakout cables. Z9000 supports a full suite of Ethernet switching and Routing protocols in the hardened FTOS operating system to enable layer 2 or layer 3 network architectures. A distributed core design with Z9000 switches can enable build out of massively scalable, high performance data center networks with 10/40 GbE ToR, 10/40 GbE End of Row and 40 GbE Core network connections. A distributed control plane in a CLOS based leaf-spine architecture can be leveraged to build highly scalable data center switching fabric. Distribution of traffic between the leaf and spine trunks can be achieved through ECMP at layer 3. Resiliency in a distributed core model is much improved compared to centralized core architectures as the failure of a single node within a CLOS network cannot bring down the entire switching fabric. A single switching element can be restarted or replaced in the event of a failure versus an entire chassis reboot would be required in a centralized design.