Lancashire, United Kingdom - (The Hosting News) - December 5, 2006 - Performance and total solutions provider for end-to-end switching and routing, Foundry Networks, Inc., has been selected to upgrade the network infrastructure of ISP company, Zen Internet.

According to the company, Zen Internet is one of the UK's first ISPs to provide high quality services to business users, and has installed two FastIron SuperX convergence-ready PoE[1] switches at its headquarters in Rochdale, Lancashire. Zen Internet has used a range of Foundry technology since 2002 as the business has grown and expanded to multiple sites. Today, the company’s complete Ethernet switching environment at its four office locations in the Greater Manchester area is now Foundry based.

Zen Internet offers its customers a range of services from the latest in high-speed DSL[2] Broadband Internet access, complete hosting packages, state of the art database driven web site design and e-commerce solutions, along with managed network security. Additional services include ISDN network connection, permanent leased line connectivity, Intranet systems and VPNs[3].

The FastIron SuperX switches have been deployed as a pair at Zen Internet's £1.5 million custom-built headquarters. They complement six BigIron 4000 backbone switches, four ServerIronXL Layer 4-7 application switches, and numerous FastIron Edge and FastIron Edge X switches the company has purchased over the past four years that are deployed at various company locations. Zen Internet has as a policy of installing switch technology in pairs to ensure resilience given its business as an ISP is so dependent on service availability.

Foundry is used in two ways - core backbone switches in the distribution layer, with FastIron Edge devices installed as aggregation devices as the network has been expanded. The Foundry edge products are designed to complement the core switches so Zen Internet gets operational benefits by having consistency in its network. Foundry will play a direct role providing Ethernet connectivity where hosting, co-location and certain types of leased line customers plug directly into the LAN switch infrastructure. This contrasts with serial leased line or DSL service customers who first connect to Zen Internet via a router and in turn to the Foundry switches.

David Reader, Senior Network Engineer, explained ''Each network site typically has two backbone switches which are used to distribute traffic around all the devices and router equipment located there, with the smaller aggregation switches used for direct customer connections.''

Zen Internet uses Foundry for, not only customer related networking purposes, but its own as well, connecting its mail and web servers, for example, to the Internet. The ServerIronXLs are deployed to provide load balancing and resilience for its email platform as well as the UseNet News Service, a legacy system for distributing text-based articles over the Internet which a number of its customer still use.

Internally, Zen Internet uses an Avaya-based VoIP solution, underpinned by Foundry's PoE enabled FastIron switches. Mr. Reader continued, ''As we look to take on more office space, the SuperX looks interesting as this is a higher end VoIP-ready solution. We've genuinely found that the equipment performs in the way it should, it works well, its been very reliable which is crucial for us as an ISP and we’ve received all the technical support needed. We’ve used Foundry long term and, based on our positive experiences, haven't had any reasons to change.''

Bob Schiff, Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Business Unit added, ''Zen Internet is an excellent example of how a successful and growing organisation can cost-effectively expand and evolve their infrastructure with our latest generation systems. It is a strong statement of support when long-time customers like Zen Internet build their next generation networks using Foundry's next generation solutions.''

Founded in 1995, and privately owned by entrepreneur Richard Tang, Zen Internet has grown rapidly with sales rising 56% per year from £7.8 million in 2003 to £19 million in 2005. Zen has focused on delivering customer service excellence, backed by technology reliability and a broad range of services. It has received accolades including various ISPA[4] awards in 2006 - Best Business ISP, Best Uncontended Service and Best Heavy Business Broadband Award, along with PC Pro's Best ISP Broadband Awards 2004 and 2005.

Foundry Networks, Inc. is a provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security, and web traffic management solutions including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4 - 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers and metro routers. Foundry's 10,000 customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial, and manufacturing companies.

To learn more about the Foundry Networks, Inc., please visit: www.foundrynetworks.com.

For more information about Zen Internet, please visit: www.zen.co.uk.