Enterprises Class Fortinet Switch's.

[shakti]

Dear Fortinet Community Team,

Please help with the below query with regards to Fortinet Switch's.

We are looking for enterprise-class Access Layer 24 and 48-port Fortinet switches for our HQ. We found models FS448E-FPOE and FS424E-FPOE. I've reviewed the data sheet and all the features meet the requirement. However, I have the following concerns.

1) Is the above model come under the enterprises class Fortinet switches?

2) As per the datasheet it has only 1GB of RAM, Is 1GB RAM is enough considering all 48 ports are being used for Data, audio/video streaming?

3) is there any alternative models are available having minimum 2-4GB of RAM.

4) Is the above models new release or EOL are expected soon ?

Kindly help on the above query.

[sahmed_FTNT]

Hello, below link will give you more details:

https://www.fortinet.com/products/ethernet-switches

[shakti]

Hi,

I've gone through the link provided but couldn't get the answer. Could anyone help with the below 4 queries?

1) Is the Fortinet FS448E-FPOE and FS424E-FPOE come under the enterprises class Fortinet switches?

2) As per the datasheet it has only 1GB of RAM, Is 1GB RAM is enough considering all 48 ports are being used for Data, audio/video streaming?

3) is there any alternative models are available having minimum 2-4GB of RAM.

4) Is the above models new release or EOL are expected soon ?

[Toshi_Esumi]

1) What's YOUR definition of "enterprise class"? There is no standard for like small business/enterprise/datacenter class definitions. They're highly marketing words and FTNT doesn't use "enterprise", but use small business/access, campus, and campus core/datacenter. FS4xxs are campus family.

2) most of switching, if not all, is done by hardware chips. Not much software is involved. That's why size of memory is relatively small compared to FWs like FGTs. The traffic type wouldn't matter much voice/video/other data.
For example, Cisco Catalyst 1300-48, which they call it "enterprise", has only 1GB memory as well.
It matters only if you use those additional/licensed L3 features a lot, like routing protocols, etc.

3) If you have to have more than 1GB, you need to go to and beyond FS1xxx, which they call as "datacenter" family.
https://www.fortinet.com/content/dam/fortinet/assets/data-sheets/FortiSwitch_Data_Center_Series.pdf

4) I have no idea about the life span of FSWs. It doesn't seem to be so consistent compared to FGTs, which is almost always 10 years.

Toshi