Foundry Networks CEO Bobby Johnson says that over the next year, corporate users will be faced with upgrading their networks for future Gigabit Ethernet desktops and 10G Ethernet LAN cores. With the release of its BigIron MG8 and NetIron 40G switch platforms last week at NetWorld+Interop - what Johnson called "the most important announcement in the history of this company" - Foundry is betting that its customers will move into the next generation of Ethernet sooner than later. Network World Senior Writer Phil Hochmuth recently spoke with Johnson about whether the market is ready to go 10 Gigabit.

10G Ethernet adoption has been slow going, according to analysts. What's the holdup?

Two things have kept 10 Gigabit market somewhat small over last year, year and a half:One is the world economy; the second is the $50,000 to $60,000 per-port pricing that first came when the technology debuted. Those prices were due to the high cost of optics. The prices on optics are coming down now, as we have a second generation of products emerging from the optics maker. We're now at the point where 10G Ethernet is approximately 10 times the cost of Gigabit Ethernet, which is where it needs to be at least. [We're at the point] now where customers who are trunking four or eight gigabit ports together can start to take a serious look at buying a single 10 Gigabit port, now that prices are coming down with a new generation of products.

Does anyone really need 10G Ethernet today?

As things like 3-MHz Pentium chips on new servers and workstations emerge [in the enterprise], you'll see more spending on new next-generation infrastructures to support the traffic being created by the bandwidth demands. Right now that need is emerging in the enterprise where there are large server farms, cluster and grid computing, and healthcare, with needs for imaging applications. Universities are building their own metro networks.

In the service provider area, 10 Gigabit is becoming a serious alternative to OC-192 SONET, as the LAN PHY rolls out. The pricing difference there is very compelling.

When the 10G Ethernet standard was in development two years ago, most experts said the technology would have a fast uptake in service provider networks, particularly with metropolitan-area network service providers. Now a lot of what you hear is enterprise-oriented around 10G Ethernet. Why the change in focus?

The MAN is still a very big opportunity. The uniqueness there is that because of the economy being in decline, there's been a lack of service provider innovation in the U.S. 10G Ethernet MANs are more of a phenomena in Asia or in Canada than in the U.S. That's where you're hearing the most noise about high-speed MAN services these days. Given an economic recovery, we will hear a lot more about 10 Gigabit in the metro in the U.S.

Were 10G Ethernet switch makers focusing on the wrong market?

Lots of the visions everyone had for 10G Ethernet are coming true but at somewhat varying rates than what was predicted. Plenty of metros are being deployed in the U.S. But it's happening more with cities or school districts that are lighting up their own dark fiber. It's a different type of metro deployment than what was originally envisioned a few years ago for Ethernet. It's very municipality-oriented.