NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a leading provider and integrator of advanced IT, networking, communications, biometric and Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions, announced the general availability of the ProgrammableFlow PF1000 virtual switch, providing SDN and complete network virtualization to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V customers. NEC also introduced a new version of its award-winning ProgrammableFlow Controller, now with the world’s first OpenFlow IPv6 support.

The ProgrammableFlow PF1000 virtual switch for Windows Server 2012 customers simplifies complex networks and integrating server and network virtualization with a single control plane for the Windows Server Hyper-V customer. This integration enables advanced network automation, rapid delivery of network services, easy VM mobility, and consistent application of business policy across the network.

“As a cornerstone of the Cloud OS platform, Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V bring groundbreaking capabilities such as network virtualization to the private cloud customer,” said Mike Schutz, general manager, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft. “We are committed to working with strategic ecosystem members such as NEC to build on Windows Server 2012’s performance, scalability and manageability. The NEC SDN solution is compatible with Hyper-V Network Virtualization and allows for easy configuration of virtual appliances such as load balancers, intrusion detection systems, and networking monitoring solutions.”

Edgenet, Inc. manages and distributes product information for more than 4,000 companies, 8,000 brands and 6,000,000+ products. Edgenet is an early adopter of the ProgrammableFlow Network Suite, including the PF1000 virtual switch, which acts as an extension to its Windows Server Hyper-V solution.

According to Mike Steineke, Edgenet vice president of IT, “The NEC ProgrammableFlow switch and controller for Hyper-V allows Edgenet to not only improve network service delivery, by having a single control plane across the entire physical and virtual Microsoft environment, it allows us to increase our network utilization levels without concern of service level disruption and realize a truly converged network infrastructure affordably.”

The ProgrammableFlow Controller is Open SDN software for virtualizing and automating networks. Ideally suited for corporate and service provider data centers, ProgrammableFlow Controller provides a cost-effective, high-performance, highly scalable SDN platform. No other solution can provide virtual L2 and L3 networks with Quality of Service (QoS) and IPv6 support across an OpenFlow enabled switch fabric. The ProgrammableFlow Controller is designed so that organizations can rapidly deploy, easily manage, and remotely control networks while saving space, management effort, and hardware costs. The results are optimal flexibility and manageability, and much lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

The new Version 4 of the ProgrammableFlow Controller includes:

• IPv6 support to help customers move beyond the limitations of IPv4 addresses, simultaneously positioning the network and business for the future with a virtualized, programmable network. NEC is the only SDN provider to offer IPv6 support.
• OpenStack® support, which gives ProgrammableFlow Open SDN customers a common platform that is dynamic, flexible, scalable and open. OpenStack Folsom and the OpenFlow protocol used in ProgrammableFlow networks combine for a unified cloud solution to manage all IT resources.
• REST-based northbound API offers an integrated interface to enable programmability of the entire network for service agility and network control. This network-level API enables uniform application and automation of consistent business policy.

“SDN promises to remake networking, delivering unprecedented network virtualization and rich application-driven programmability and agility,” said Rohit Mehra, VP Network Infrastructure, at analyst firm IDC Corporation. “NEC has demonstrated great leadership in OpenFlow-based SDN with its ProgrammableFlow networking technology, which provides full-function benefits to IT organizations looking for the next generation of networking.”

“ProgrammableFlow provides state-of-the-art for Software Defined Networks,” said Don Clark, director of Business Development at NEC. “For organizations looking for automation and control over their networks, and for those looking for easy integration into their existing environments, ProgrammableFlow is the right choice.”

More information on NEC ProgrammableFlow SDN can be found at www.necam.com/pflow.

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