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What do you care most about a data center switch? The number of ports? The switch class? Or the operating system? Here is a comparison of two 48-port 10gbe switches from FS.COM and Cisco. Let’s see what the vendors value for their own devices? FS N5850-48S6Q 48-port 10Gbe Switch Overview FS N5850-48S6Q network switch is initially positioned as the bare metal switch, but you can choose the one pre-installed with Broadcom ICOS or Cumulus Linux. The combination of Cumulus Linux makes the N5850-48S6Q 10gbe switch stand head and shoulders above its counterparts. Here we revolve around the one with Cumulus Linux. FS N5850-48S6Q network switch comes with 48 SFP+ 10Gb ports and 6 QSFP+ 40Gb ports, and each 40Gb port can operate in native 40-Gbps or 4 x 10-Gbps mode. N5850-48S6Q is a top-of-rack (TOR) or leaf 10Gbe switch in a compact 1U form factor, ideally suited for high performance and programmable data center environments. It performs excellent low latency and power efficiency in a...

Have you ever wondered that one day you could customize switches like the way you configure your own PC? It is actually happening. As vendors researches and develops switch structures by decoupling software from hardware, bare metal switch come into being. The switching technology can be programmed like Cumulus Linux servers. They may appear in a lot more average enterprises in the next few years with ONIE moving into the spotlight. Clearing the Fog Around Bare Metal Switch Bare metal switch, also known as white-box switch, is solely a switch box with a chip inside it. What makes it differ from original network switch ? Well, common Ethernet switches, also called closed switches, are sold with hardware and software together. That is to say, if you buy a Juniper EX or MX series network switches, you also buy JUNOS; if you buy a Cisco Catalyst network switch, you have to buy Cisco IOS. This is in contrast to bare metal switches which widen the choice available to network buyers. The...