Netgear drives managed switches into SME space - News - Business

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

--------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Netgear drives managed switches into SME space

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
May 09, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Netgear-drives-managed-switches-into-SME-space/0,139023166,120265072,00.htm

In a direct response to the growth of their customers, network telecommunications provider Netgear has expanded into the managed switch market to target medium sized businesses.

-We're moving from a target market of 100 [employees] to a target market of 250," Ian McLean, managing director of Netgear Asia told ZDNet Australia. -Many of our customers who were about 100 have grown and want to stay with Netgear."

According to McLean, the company's decision to enter the managed switch market is a result of calls from both the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

Peter Newton, Netgear's US product manager, switches, explained the significance of the change. -Managed switches are ones you can talk to and interact with, find out what's going on in certain ports, there are lots of tricks you can do," he said. -Traditionally they cost more than unmanaged switches because you need a CPU in the hardware, and the software to run on the box."

-We are entering into a new market, that being the enterprise market, however we are also extending managed switches to a new market, those companies with unmanaged switches who would like to get into managed switches," he said.

Netgear sees the main selling point of its new switch to be the user-friendly interface, which has been designed to be accessible to the first time management user. -We have basic and advanced features. In basic features the user can check the ports and do a lot of stuff but cannot damage the server. As they grow, or if they already have experience, they can use the advanced features," Newton said.

The price of managed switches has been dropping off, with falling component costs and Newton claims the first managed switch from Netgear is around 25 percent cheaper than comparable switches.