Adtran presented their new product and service announcements at Enterprise Connect Orlando 2014, and I had the opportunity to meet with Chris Thompson of the company.
Finally! I can say this since I've been anticipating Adtran's new 1531/1531P small form Gig switch that is delivered in a non-PoE or PoE version with a street price $359/$559. VARs and MSPs should be really happy with this addition.
Adtran has minted this switch as a 12-port non-blocking switch with up to 24 Gbps switching capacity. It has eight ports 10/100/1000 and then two additional ports for copper uplinks to other switches or servers, appliances, etc. The last two ports are 1-Gbps SFP fiber ports used for uplinking to another switch stack at another IDF or appliance.
The uplink capabilities allow campus networks to pare down in locations that need fewer ports, and I have these type of locations in our campuses that we currently serve. This sort of uplink capability can help substantially lower the cost for such locations.
On the SMB side, the 1531/1531P allows us to put in place a really cost effective switch for hosted voice deployments. The built-in Wi-Fi controller also provides another key feature for SMBs on a budget.
The switch is also VoIP-ready, meaning that key features are embedded in the software such as VLAN and Quality of Service (QoS). Both models use fanless design, and this translates to low noise--especially noticeable in small office environments.
The third area of deployment for the 1531/1531P is for add-on deployments of Wi-Fi, network security cameras and access control. When ports are tight, the low cost of the 1531/1531P make it an ideal fit to accommodate small projects.
I think Adtran can anticipate acceptance and success with this product since it fits nicely into SMBs, MSPs and add-on work--in both campus and services areas. Because the Adtran AP160 series access points are effective in penetration, the onboard Wi-Fi controller and 1531P make a good combination to keep costs down and provide a cost-effective solution for delivering voice, data, video and Wi-Fi to SMBs.
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