In an effort the company says emphasizes that it’s serious about driving its presence in the network switch market and addressing the network fabric layer as part of a single end-to- end solution, NetScout (News - Alert) today publicly announced a high-density, modular solution called the nGenius 3900 packet flow switch.

The product, which includes 10- and 40-gigE ports and is able to support 100gigE interfaces, is based on the technology NetScout got through its recent acquisition of ONPATH Technologies (News - Alert).

Hundreds of thousands of ports can be managed in a single environment using the ONPATH technology, NetScout told TMCnet following the announcement of the deal. Through the deal, NetScout also got ONPATH’s test automation business, which had sold large switching/layer 1 connectivity to leading network equipment manufacturers.

Steve Shalita, NetScout’s vice president of marketing, yesterday told TMCnet that the introduction of the 3900 “is a huge move to really solidify our position” in the network switching space.

The nGenius 3900 comes in one-, three- and 12-slot configurations. The first two are shipping now; the 12-slot version will ship in volume starting in the second quarter of 2013. The related nGenius PFS Management software provides unified device management and enables end-to-end automated drag-and-drop provisioning across distributed chassis.

NetScout entered the networking switching space about two years ago via its acquisition of Simena (News - Alert). Following that deal, NetScout introduced a 24-port 10gig network monitoring switch.

In a press release issued by NetScout, Rohit Mehra, vice president of network infrastructure at IDC (News - Alert), was quoted as saying: “As data centers consolidate and IP networks begin the next wave of transformation to support cloud deployments, the migration from one Gigabit to 10 Gigabit links is further adding to the challenges faced by IT teams tasked with monitoring and securing the network. IDC research shows that shipments of 10 Gigabit ports in 2012 have grown at more than 70 percent year over year, and we forecast the adoption of 40 Gigabit to accelerate at even a faster rate starting in 2013. Many organizations are now building a monitoring fabric to simplify and streamline the distribution of traffic flows to extend the life of existing management tools. NetScout has leveraged its technology leadership position in the performance management market to deliver a powerful, differentiated network monitoring platform. With this announcement, IDC believes NetScout is well positioned to address the needs of the growing network monitoring switch market.”