Arista Networks Expands 7050X4 Series

December 19, 2022

Arista Networks expanded their widely deployed 7050X4 Series, providing longevity and investment protection for enterprise compute and storage, colocation providers (Colo) and managed services providers (MSPs). Complementing the new 7050X4 Series, Arista also announced an expansion of the 7060X5 Series with the addition of 800G, which doubles the capacity of hyperscale backbones while reducing space and power per gigabit.

Both traditional enterprise and hyperscale cloud are in the midst of compute and storage refresh cycles, fueling demand for higher speed networks. While these customers are transitioning from 1/10/25G to 50/100G, the hyperscale cloud is transitioning from 50/100G to 100/200/400G for demanding AI/ML workloads. Arista's expanded portfolio of 7050X4 and 7060X5 products address the specific needs of both enterprise and hyperscale cloud, enabling higher network speeds while lowering OpEx and CapEx.

Investment Protection with Multi-generation Support

Rapid advances in distributed high performance and virtualized or containerized applications are driving enterprises to increase computing power, storage performance and scale, which in turn demands the underlying network to become lossless communications at higher speeds.

While the majority of installed servers rely on 10/25G Network Interface Card (NIC) connectivity (based on PCIe® Gen3), the latest server NICs, based on PCIe Gen4 and upcoming Gen5/6, deliver 50/100/200G server NIC connections, thereby driving a network speed upgrade between the data center leaf and spine connections from existing 100G to 400G and 800G. The new 7050X4 and 7060X5 systems enable the co-existence of current and future requirements with four generations of investment protection.

The new 7050X4 systems take industry standard, high volume SFP interfaces to the next level, with the new 100G SFP-DD and DSFP providing ‘quad-speed’ support and QSFP-DD for 40G to 400G, providing higher density and lower power at a lower cost/Gbit, with options from 10G to 400G.

“Elegantly managing the transition between generations of compute resources has always posed a challenge for customers and networking vendors. Arista’s vision for multi-generational compatibility and diverse portfolio, based on Broadcom Trident and Tomahawk® silicon families, align perfectly with our network adapter roadmap and offers customers excellent investment protection,” said Jas Tremblay, Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Solutions Group at Broadcom.

Expansion for Cloud, Enabled with 800G

Hyperscalers continue to expand their network bandwidth, driven by unprecedented increases in workloads from artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and SaaS applications, as well as hybrid work environments. Key challenges continue to be reducing power, increasing efficiency, guaranteeing security and meeting sustainability goals. The new 7060X5 800G systems are multi-role leaf and spine platforms that can support up to 32 ports of 800G, addressing today’s high end storage and HPC requirements as well as future generations of server connectivity.

“Arista continues to accelerate customer adoption of the next generation of server NICs based on PCIe Gen4 with cost effective and power efficient products for the leaf and spine tiers. Our expanded support for 40/50/100/200/400G and new 800G systems with industry standard QSFP and OSFP satisfies customer requirements for large scale cloud networks while maintaining backwards compatibility, satisfying customers large and small,” said Anshul Sadana, COO for Arista Networks.

Arista’s 800G optical modules and cables are available in the same form factors widely deployed in today’s 400G networks, OSFP and QSFP-DD. In addition, the new 800G modules provide double the bandwidth at a lower power and cost per bit compared to existing 400G modules.

The new Arista 7050X4 and 7060X5 Series fixed leaf and spine switches are based on the Broadcom Trident4 and Tomahawk®4 chipsets running EOS for rich automation and visibility covering 10G to 800G speeds to meet the critical requirements of modern enterprise and hyperscale cloud networks:

Low power consumption - 20-40% power savings

Ubiquitous form factors - SFP & QSFP-based systems for diverse compute connectivity

Quad-Speed Investment Protection - Backward and Forward compatibility for current and future compute and storage systems

2x density improvement - 32 ports of 800G (25.6Tbps) in 1U for AI and ML applications

4-Generation Compatibility - Supporting PCIe Gen4 based compute and storage

Availability

The new 7050X4 and 7060X5 platforms will be available in Q1 2023, with customer testing currently in progress.