3Com Corporation has introduced new managed Gigabit switches that claim to deliver large-enterprise performance and features at small-business prices.

The new 3Com Baseline Switch 2900 Plus Family and 3Com OfficeConnectManaged Gigabit PoE Switch deliver voice-ready Layer 2 enterprise-class Gigabit switching with Power over Ethernet (PoE), advanced features for network control and flexibility and security capabilities, optimised for SMBs.

According to the release, key benefits of the new switches include operation for organisations with limited or no IT support; auto-voice VLAN; QoS prioritisation so voice calls always have sufficient bandwidth to ensure clarity; and gigabit Ethernet performance for high-bandwidth applications such as video, IP security, ERP and CRM.

The Baseline Switch 2900 Plus Family of rack-mountable switches is available in 16-, 24- and 48-port models.  A 24-port PoE version delivers data and power over the same cabling and powers devices such as IP phones, wireless access points and Web cameras.

The OfficeConnect managed Gigabit PoE Switch has 10 Power-over-Ethernet-enabled 10/100/1000 ports and a dual-purpose Gigabit port for connecting to high-performance computers, servers or network backbones.