Foundry Networks Introduces the Industry's First Integrated Layer 2-7 Web and Network Switches With LAN and MAN Interfaces.

Business/High-Tech Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

Foundry Networks(TM), Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY) announced today the rollout of their ServerIron(TM)400 and ServerIron800 chassis-based switches that culminate the integration of Foundry's high performance Layer 2/3 switching platforms with the rich feature set of its Layer 4-7 ServerIron switches. The ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 can sustain forwarding throughputs of up to 56 Gigabits per second (Gbps) while supporting up to 16,000,000 concurrent web sessions.

Velocity(TM), the power behind Foundry's ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 Layer 2-7 switches, is a module that combines customer-proven IronCore(TM) ASIC technology with symmetric multi-processing power to deliver wire-speed switching and routing performance for Layer 2/3 traffic flows, along with ultra-high performance Layer 4-7 application level switching. These Layer 4-7 switches include Foundry's Server Load Balancing, Global Server Load Balancing, Firewall Load Balancing, Transparent Cache Switching, and URL, Cookie, and SSL-Session ID switching, all delivered in a fault-tolerant modular chassis.

"Service providers, including those organizations providing hosting and co-location facilities, are experiencing a tremendous demand for high performance, high bandwidth, and high availability services. Due to the constantly changing nature of the Internet business model, networking infrastructure solutions that worked yesterday are being stressed to their breaking point today by the introduction of new web-based applications. We believe that one way to solve this problem is to create end-to-end networking infrastructures that provide massive amounts of concurrent capacity and throughput," said Bobby Johnson, President and CEO of Foundry Networks.

"The integration of the BigIron(TM) switching and routing architectures with the ServerIron Internet Traffic Management capabilities in one high-performance package allows us to once again raise the performance and price/performance bars for all web switching products," continued Johnson.

The ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 Layer 2-7 switch offers up to 4,000,000 maximum sessions per port while delivering traffic flows at a blazing 84 Million packets per second (Mpps). Providing up to 256 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of total switching capacity means that ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 can scale to meet peak Internet traffic loads. The products support over 160,000 URL flows per second, while supporting server load balancing with sophisticated persistence methods such as SSL-Session ID and cookie-based switching. With the ability of processing over 600,000 connections per second, the ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 will be able to handle the most demanding web environments.

In addition, ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 simplify network design and reduce network complexity by combining the Layer 2/3 switching and routing functions with the Internet Traffic Management capabilities of the ServerIronXL in the same chassis. All ServerIron products support fault-tolerant configurations that include Active/Standby and Active/Active deployment that supports stateful failover -- protecting the user from device failures. The high degree of fault tolerance provided by all ServerIron products is critical in e-commerce or financial applications where transaction reliability is an absolute necessity.

The ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 are powered by Foundry's Internet IronWare(TM) 8.0, a Layer 4-7 software suite designed to deliver the full set of Internet Traffic Management applications required by enterprise and service provider customers alike, and IronWare, a Layer 2/3 software suite which delivers a full complement of hardware-based switching and routing capabilities along with wire-speed Access Control Lists (ACLs) and a robust set of protocols including IP, RIPv1/2, OSPF, BGP4, IGMP, DVMRP and PIM (Sparse and Dense modes).

"By combining the best features of their existing products, Foundry Networks has provided Evoke with a way to offer high performance web switching and multi-protocol routing, all deliverable inside of one platform. This will allow us to save rack space by eliminating multiple boxes," said Todd Vernon, CTO of Evoke, a leading Internet communication service provider.

Velocity Web Switching Management Module

Powering ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 is the new Velocity Web Switching Management Module, built on Foundry's unique distributed switching architecture. The Velocity module includes a 32 Gbps switched shared-memory system, wire-speed ASICs for hardware-based switching and routing, along with an integrated symmetric multi-processing architecture. This integrated architecture delivers eight times the performance capacity of the existing fixed configuration ServerIron products. The Velocity Web Switching Management Module provides for unmatched total system capacity and performance, giving tremendous flexibility and functionality to e-commerce and service providers.

Ironshield(TM) Security Services

Internet IronWare also includes support for IronShield(TM) Security services that provide protection against malicious attacks and unwanted interference while providing uninterrupted service for legitimate connection requests. IronShield protects against a multitude of hacker attacks including Denial of Service (DoS), SMURF, Ping of Death, and Teardrop assaults. Other security features include full network address translation (NAT), wire-speed ACLs, SSH and Radius and TACACS/TACACS+ support.

ServerIron400 and ServerIron800

ServerIron400 and ServerIron800, respectively, is a 4-slot and 8-slot modular chassis that ships preconfigured with a Velocity web switching management module and single AC power supply. The remaining user slots are available for building complete networking solutions by deploying any BigIron interface module. ServerIron400 provides up to 128 Gbps of total switching capacity, up to 24 ports of 1000Base-T, 1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX, or 1000Base-Long Haul (for links up to 150 Km) and up to 72 ports of 10/100Base-TX or 100Base-FX. ServerIron800 provides up to 256 Gbps of total switching capacity, up to 56 ports of Gigabit Ethernet (including all Gigabit Ethernet port types listed above), and up to 168 ports of 10/100Base-TX or 100Base-FX. All chassis support redundant AC and DC power supply options, with the ServerIron800 also offering the added benefit of N+1 power redundancy.

All systems support RMON (4 groups), come with a Foundry MIB and can be fully managed and configured via any Web-based GUI, HP OpenView, Command Line Interface, or standalone IronView management application.

Pricing and Availability

The ServerIron400 and ServerIron800 start at $24,995 and $29,995, respectively. Layer 2 through Layer 7 price per port for 10/100 Mbps configurations is $375 per port, while Gigabit Ethernet pricing for 1000Base-SX is $2,125 per port. The products will be generally available in July, 2000.

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a leader in high performance end-to-end switching and routing solutions including Internet routers, Layer 2/3 switches and Internet Traffic Management switches. Foundry products are installed in the world's largest ISPs including AOL (NYSE: AOL), EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), AT&T WorldNet, MSN, and Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP). Foundry products are also installed in large enterprises, entertainment, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as e-commerce sites, universities and government organizations. Some of these customers include: The University of Washington, LucasFilm, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), LTV Steel (NYSE: LTV), Incyte Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INCY), U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy, NASA and NIH. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBO.LAN or visit our web site at www.foundrynetworks.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. These forward-looking statements include anticipated support and feature additions to Foundry products and expected availability and prices of future products. The results expected by these statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including continued acceptance of Foundry's current products in general, Foundry's ability to introduce new and superior products and predict future industry standards, the quality of new products offered by Foundry's competitors in the intensely competitive networking market, and Foundry's ability to attract and retain skilled employees in an intensively competitive hiring market. Actual results may differ materially due to these and other factors. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Foundry's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see the Risk Factors described in Foundry's final Prospectus dated September 27, 1999 for its initial public offering as well as its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Foundry Networks, ServerIron, Velocity, BigIron, IronWare, IronCore and IronShield are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.