210-AYMK Dell 48-Port SFP56-DD 8-Port QSFP56-DD AC PSU OS10 Enterprise Reverse Airflow Network Switch

Dell 210-AYMK 48-Port Switch Overview

The Dell 210-AYMK network switch represents a premium category of enterprise-class, high-density switching solutions engineered to meet the demands of modern data centers, hyperscale environments, cloud service providers, and advanced enterprise networks. Positioned within Dell’s high-performance switching portfolio, this model embodies the evolution of Ethernet technology toward ultra-high throughput, low latency, and massive scalability. The combination of 48 SFP56-DD ports delivering 100GBE connectivity and 8 QSFP56-DD ports supporting up to 400GBE places this switch at the forefront of next-generation networking, enabling organizations to consolidate infrastructure, streamline network topologies, and achieve unprecedented performance density within a compact 1U rack-mountable form factor. This category of switching equipment is defined by its ability to handle intensive east-west traffic, support high-bandwidth workloads, and maintain consistent performance across mission-critical applications. The Dell 210-AYMK serves as a central fabric component in leaf-spine architectures, core aggregation layers, and data center interconnect (DCI) designs, enabling seamless data flow between servers, storage systems, and network appliances. With a focus on enterprise reliability, modularity, and serviceability, this switch delivers a robust networking foundation designed for long-term operational efficiency and future-proof scalability.

Ultra-High Bandwidth

At the core of this category is the unprecedented port density achieved through the use of SFP56-DD and QSFP56-DD interfaces. The 48 SFP56-DD ports provide flexible support for 50GbE and 100GbE connections, allowing network architects to tailor link speeds according to workload requirements, cabling infrastructure, and growth projections. These ports are ideally suited for high-density server connectivity, enabling direct attachment to modern network interface cards that support 25GbE, 50GbE, and 100GbE speeds, while also offering backward compatibility for mixed-speed environments. The additional 8 QSFP56-DD ports deliver ultra-high-speed 200GbE and 400GbE connectivity, making them ideal for uplinks, spine connections, and data center interconnect scenarios. This level of bandwidth density within a single rack unit reduces the need for multiple aggregation layers, lowers cabling complexity, and simplifies network management. The ability to support 400GbE links is especially critical for organizations adopting advanced workloads such as artificial intelligence training, machine learning inference, real-time analytics, high-performance computing, and large-scale virtualization, where massive data movement is essential.

Optimized Throughput

The Dell 210-AYMK switch category is engineered to handle extremely high packet rates and sustained throughput without degradation. The switching fabric is designed to support full line-rate forwarding across all ports simultaneously, ensuring that bandwidth is not oversubscribed and that latency remains minimal even under peak loads. This capability is crucial for modern data centers where application performance is tightly coupled to network responsiveness and throughput consistency. By delivering predictable performance at scale, this switch category enables organizations to support mission-critical services such as database clustering, distributed storage systems, container orchestration platforms, and real-time collaboration tools. The high-capacity forwarding plane and advanced buffer management ensure that traffic bursts, microbursts, and congestion scenarios are handled gracefully, preserving service quality and application responsiveness.

Low Latency

Latency-sensitive workloads such as financial trading systems, real-time analytics, video streaming, and AI model training demand ultra-low latency network paths. The Dell 210-AYMK category addresses this requirement through hardware-based forwarding, deep packet buffers, and optimized ASIC design. These features minimize packet processing delays, reduce jitter, and ensure consistent delivery times, enabling applications to achieve optimal performance and reliability.

Advanced Operating System

This category of Dell switches is powered by Dell OS10 Enterprise, a modern, modular, and open networking operating system designed to deliver flexibility, automation, and programmability at scale. OS10 Enterprise provides a comprehensive feature set that supports advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, data center fabrics, security policies, and automation workflows. It is built to integrate seamlessly with modern DevOps tools, orchestration platforms, and software-defined networking environments, enabling organizations to adopt agile network operations models. OS10’s modular architecture allows administrators to customize the software stack, deploy only the necessary components, and apply updates or patches without disrupting network operations. This approach enhances system stability, reduces maintenance windows, and improves overall network resilience. The operating system’s support for industry-standard APIs, scripting languages, and automation frameworks enables organizations to automate configuration management, monitoring, and troubleshooting, significantly reducing operational overhead.

Comprehensive Layer

The Dell 210-AYMK switch category supports a full suite of Layer 2 and Layer 3 features essential for modern enterprise and data center networks. These include advanced VLAN management, link aggregation, spanning tree protocols, multicast routing, dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF, BGP, and IS-IS, as well as policy-based routing and traffic engineering. This rich feature set enables network architects to design scalable, resilient, and highly available network topologies that can adapt to changing business requirements. The integration of advanced routing and switching capabilities within a single platform allows for the consolidation of network functions, reducing the number of devices required and simplifying network design. This consolidation not only lowers capital expenditure but also streamlines operations, as administrators can manage fewer devices with a consistent operating environment and management interface.

Enterprise

Reliability and availability are central to the design philosophy of this switch category. The Dell 210-AYMK features dual AC power supply units that are hot-swappable, ensuring continuous operation even in the event of a power module failure. This redundancy minimizes the risk of downtime and supports high-availability network designs required for mission-critical applications. Hot-swappable components extend beyond power supplies to include fan modules and, in some configurations, other field-replaceable units. This design allows maintenance and component replacement to occur without interrupting network services, reducing mean time to repair and improving overall operational resilience. The 1U rack-mountable form factor further enhances serviceability by enabling dense deployments within standard data center racks while maintaining adequate airflow and cooling efficiency.

Reverse Airflow

The reverse airflow configuration of this switch category is optimized for data center environments that utilize cold aisle and hot aisle containment strategies. By directing airflow from front to back or back to front, depending on the configuration, the switch integrates seamlessly into existing rack layouts and cooling architectures. This flexibility simplifies deployment, reduces the need for additional cooling modifications, and ensures optimal thermal performance across diverse data center designs. Efficient airflow management contributes to lower operating temperatures, reduced fan speeds, and lower overall power consumption, which in turn supports sustainability initiatives and reduces operational costs. The combination of high-performance cooling and energy-efficient design ensures that the switch can operate reliably under heavy workloads and high ambient temperatures.

Data Center

Beyond intra-data center fabrics, this category of switches supports high-speed data center interconnect (DCI) scenarios, enabling organizations to connect multiple data centers, disaster recovery sites, and edge locations with high-bandwidth, low-latency links. The QSFP56-DD ports provide the capacity required for long-haul and metro-area connections, supporting advanced optical modules and transport technologies. By facilitating seamless data replication, workload mobility, and application failover across geographically distributed sites, this switch category supports business continuity, disaster recovery, and hybrid cloud strategies. The integration of advanced routing, tunneling, and security features ensures that inter-site connectivity is both high-performance and secure.

Cloud Integration

Modern enterprise networks must integrate seamlessly with virtualization platforms, private clouds, and public cloud services. The Dell 210-AYMK category supports technologies such as VXLAN, EVPN, and overlay networking, enabling scalable multi-tenant architectures and seamless workload mobility across physical and virtual environments. These capabilities allow organizations to extend network policies, security controls, and quality-of-service configurations across on-premises data centers and cloud environments, creating a unified networking experience. The ability to integrate with cloud management platforms and orchestration tools further enhances agility and operational efficiency.

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency and sustainability are increasingly important considerations in modern data center design. This category of Dell switches incorporates energy-efficient components, advanced power management features, and optimized cooling designs to minimize power consumption and environmental impact. The use of high-efficiency power supplies, intelligent fan control, and efficient ASICs reduces energy usage without compromising performance. By enabling high port density and performance within a compact 1U form factor, the Dell 210-AYMK category reduces the physical footprint of network infrastructure, lowering cooling requirements and improving overall data center efficiency. This contributes to reduced operational costs, improved sustainability metrics, and alignment with organizational environmental goals.

Integration

The switch category supports software-defined networking and network virtualization technologies, enabling centralized control, policy-driven automation, and dynamic network configuration. Integration with SDN controllers and network virtualization platforms allows organizations to abstract the underlying hardware, simplify network management, and accelerate service deployment. This capability is particularly valuable in large-scale data center and cloud environments, where network agility, scalability, and automation are critical to business success.

Use Cases

The Dell 210-AYMK category serves a wide range of use cases across industries, including finance, healthcare, education, government, manufacturing, media and entertainment, and technology. In each of these sectors, the need for high-performance, reliable, and secure networking infrastructure is paramount, and this switch category delivers the capabilities required to support diverse application workloads and operational requirements. In financial services, the low-latency and high-throughput capabilities support real-time trading platforms, risk analysis systems, and transaction processing networks. In healthcare, the switch category enables reliable connectivity for electronic medical records, imaging systems, telemedicine platforms, and research applications. In education and research institutions, it supports high-performance computing clusters, collaborative research networks, and campus-wide connectivity.

High-Performance

High-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads demand massive bandwidth, low latency, and deterministic performance. The Dell 210-AYMK category addresses these requirements through its high-density 100GbE and 400GbE ports, advanced buffering, and low-latency switching fabric. This enables efficient data movement between compute nodes, storage systems, and accelerators, supporting large-scale simulations, data analytics, and AI model training. The ability to scale network fabrics to support thousands of high-speed endpoints ensures that organizations can expand their HPC and AI infrastructure without encountering network bottlenecks, preserving performance and efficiency as workloads grow.