EMC Introduces Midsize Connectrix Backbone Director From Brocade

EMC Corporation introduced the newest addition to its EMC Connectrix family of switches and directors as well as new storage networking security and management capabilities.

The EMC Connectrix ED-DCX-4S-B, a new midsize backbone director, based on OEM technology from Brocade, is a multipurpose core and edge network switching platform designed to help facilitate server, storage area network (SAN), and data center consolidation while helping to reduce IT infrastructure and administrative costs. The director scales to 192 ports at up to full 8 Gbit/sec speed through its four modular blade slots and leverages the same architecture and delivers the same high levels of performance, scalability, and energy efficiency as its larger predecessor, the Connectrix DCX director.

The Connectrix DCX-4S provides a highly robust platform in a smaller form factor for enterprise data centers supporting both open systems and System z environments. It can be deployed as a lower-cost backbone for midsize enterprise network environments that do not require the throughput and port density of larger models. For larger networks, it can be deployed at the network edge to provide complete backbone-class capabilities throughout the data center fabric. The DCX-4S is also compatible with other FOS-based Connectrix products, providing investment protection and seamless integration into existing environments.

The Connectrix DCX-4S also provides a full suite of Adaptive Networking features that help optimize fabric performance while maximizing service levels for critical applications. It leverages a future-built multi-protocol architecture for consolidating server connectivity as low-latency, lossless technology options such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) emerge.

"The new Connectrix DCX-4S backbone is ideal for customers who require a cost-effective enterprise-class backbone director for physical or virtual data center initiatives," said Barbara Robidoux, EMC Vice President, Storage Product Marketing. "The EMC Connectrix family continues to be expanded and provides customers with a wide range of storage networking capabilities, proven interoperability, centralized management and the industry’s best customer service."

Fabric-based Encryption Platforms
The Connectrix DCX family now features critical security and encryption capabilities from RSA, the Security Division of EMC, which can help customers meet regulatory compliance requirements. These features will initially help customers encrypt data-at-rest on disk and will support tape and other types of storage media in the future. For sensitive corporate data residing on data center SANs, organizations can leverage the existing intelligence layer in the storage fabric to implement and manage data-at-rest security solutions. This approach enables centralized management to support nearly every aspect of the data center, from server environments and workstations to edge computing and backup environments.

The new encryption technologies come in two form factors: a 32-port standalone encryption switch and a 16-port encryption blade for the Connectrix DCX family of backbone directors. Both options provide up to 96 Gbit/sec of encryption processing power and scale quickly to meet rising customer data security demands. Both products can be implemented in existing fabrics without disruption and can be applied to specified data flows, preserving investments in heterogeneous storage networks.

The Brocade-based Connectrix (B-Series) encryption platform architecture also integrates with EMC’s RSA Key Manager (RKM) for the Datacenter, an enterprise key management system designed to lower ongoing operational costs associated with encryption. With built-in high availability features and powerful management interfaces, RKM is a critical component in any distributed encryption infrastructure. RKM provides a centralized key vault for the long-term storage of Connectrix encryption keys and simplifies management tasks to help organizations meet audit requirements. Built on a robust, fault-tolerant architecture, RKM ensures that keys are always available when needed, which is especially critical for fabric-based encryption. In addition, RKM has industry-leading interoperability allowing customers to leverage their key manager servers to handle encryption keys from a variety of sources all across the infrastructure, including host-based encryption keys for EMC PowerPath® path management software.

"Fabric-based encryption can help reduce the complexity of data-at-rest encryption," said Katie Curtin-Mestre, director, Product Marketing, Data Security Products, RSA, The Security Division of EMC. "Encrypting data in the network fabric allows customers to provide heterogeneous vendor support, secure data on media that lack native encryption capabilities, and provide performance that inline encryption appliances cannot match. It allows for a single, common method of encrypting of all types of data."

EMC Connectrix Manager Data Center Edition
The newest version of Connectrix Manager Data Center Edition is a sophisticated SAN management software tool for managing, monitoring, configuring and reporting of Connectrix switches and directors. This latest version is a key component of Brocade’s Data Center Fabric (DCF) architecture vision and incorporates the best features of existing Brocade management products. Unique in its ability to provide unified, end-to-end management of data center fabrics, it can configure and manage the comprehensive portfolio of Connectrix storage networking products. Designed for enhanced scalability, Connectrix Manager Data Center Edition can monitor up to 24 multi-protocol fabrics at a time, supporting up to 9,000 fabric ports and 20,000 devices ports. It is also able to perform real-time and historical performance monitoring to enable proactive problem diagnosis, maximize resource utilization, facilitate capacity planning, and centrally manage encryption services.

Availability
The Connectrix DCX-4S midsize director and Connectrix Manager Data Center Edition are all generally available from EMC. The Connectrix encryption platforms will be available later in Q2 2009.