New switches continue Ubiquiti trend of price disruption

Ubiquiti Networks has released two new switch models so far this year that are sure to turn heads for network administrators on tight budgets.

The EdgeSwitch-12F (ES-12F) announced in January is a managed fiber switch, featuring eight 100/1000 and four Gigabit SFP ports, as well as another four 10/100/1000 RJ45 ports.

EdgeSwitch 12 Fiber

It's certainly an appealing addition to the Ubiquiti's Edge family. It also includes layer 3 functionality and offers up to 16 Gbps of total non-blocking throughput. Additionally, it boasts a 23.81 Mpps forwarding rate -- plenty for a 16 port switch. While there aren't any SFP+ (10 Gbps) ports included, it's hard to complain at $219.00 MSRP. The world's data demands are only growing, and Ubiquiti releasing their first fiber switch is an encouraging sign that acquiring hardware to properly support the needs of the future won't necessarily break the bank.

Also making headlines in the world of Ubiquiti products is this week's announcement of a new 150 Watt, 8-port UniFi Switch, the US-8-150W. This desk mounted switch features PoE / PoE+ as well as 24V passive PoE. The 8 RJ45 ports are all Gigabit, and the box includes two SFP ports as well. As a part of the UniFi switching family, it also supports the UniFi controller software required to manage Ubiquiti APs and USG Routers. 

UniFi 8-port, 150 W, PoE+ switch

As per usual, price-disruption is the name of the game with Ubiquiti, and the US-8-150W is no exception weighing in at $199 MSRP. By comparison, Cisco Meraki's MS-220-8P is the same hardware with a $1,255 price-tag - and that doesn't include licensing.

The ES-12F began showing up on distribution lists in early March, and is available for order here at u5Networks.com. As the US-8-150W was just announced, we can only speculate that it will be available in the next 2-3 months, as is often the case with new Ubiquiti products. Pre-orders are also available for the US-8-150W here at u5Networks.com.