We Upgraded To A Ruckus / Brocade ICX7750. Hear What Happened

A while back we did a rundown on entry-level Ruckus ICX switches, the little engines that did move from Brocade to a new home. Those are great starters for your network, and the ICX series was sort of a last hurrah for the Brocade brand, which means they’ve got the features and quality you’re accustomed to, now in a different wrapper. But if you’re looking for more robust routing features and an opportunity for a larger stack, you might want to graduate up the ICX series.

The ICX7750 has some of the same features of the ICX6000 series: multiple 40G ports per switch, L3 capabilities, and a 1RU configuration that will save on power consumption and data center cooling, but it also adds some capabilities for today’s network infrastructure. The 7750 is a more scalable and feature-rich for the growing needs in your data center or local rack.

First off, the ICX7750 has moved up from the 1G/40G configuration of the 6000 series to a faster 10G/40G setup that’s becoming standard today, while still offering a version with 1G copper ports that can handle the legacy specs in your network. And if you’re feeling those 40G server NICs, you can jump up to the ICX7750-26Q, which will give you 26 QSFP ports in an affordable low overhead configuration. These options will make for a stack that can meet just about any need in a closet rack or a DC stack.

And stacking is where this platform adds quite a bit of value and flexibility. With an industry leading 12-unit stacking structure (up from a maximum of eight on the ICX6000 series), you can go full Crazy Climber on a single group of switches, filling that rack with a variety of different ports, running a hot add to the existing stack any time you want, and potentially acting as the Control Bridge for your existing or future fabric network. A master brain like that is going to save a lot of network headaches.

With up to 128k ipv4 routes on a ICX7750, these switches aren’t going to satisfy a need for a strong core router, but they might work at the edge. They’d make a great platform for a local wireless mesh network in an office or commercial space, utilizing Ruckus Unleashed and a wide range of access points that’ll suit your needs with a management/troubleshooting interface that won’t require an IT certificate to master. This platform is high resilience and low TCO, just what any growing network wants.

If you want to start that crazy climb with a single ICX7750 or a whole skyscraper of them, we’re your safety net. Call Terabit Systems for all your building needs at +1 (415) 230-4353 or click here to send us an email.