Brocade Introduces Unified Network Management Platform

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced Brocade Network Advisorwww.brocade.com/network-advisor, the industry’s first unified network management platform for SAN and IP networks. The new platform provides a single management solution across Brocade Fibre Channel SANs, IP networks, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) networks, wireless networks and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks.

Brocade Network Advisor is designed to support the four Brocade One propositions of simple, non-stop networking, optimized applications and investment protection to provide benefits to customers with data center, enterprise campus and service provider networks:

• Simplicity: Delivers comprehensive lifecycle management capabilities, including configuration, monitoring, management and reporting across the entire Brocade networking portfolio – all from a single, easy-to-use GUI. Powerful Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) capabilities provide fine-grained management over networking resources and a detailed audit of change activities. A unified end-user experience across different network types enables customers to embrace convergence technologies (such as FCoE, wired/wireless, VoIP and unified communications) at their own pace with a minimal learning curve for their administrators as they transition to these new technologies.
• Non-stop Networking: Reduces network downtime and increases network security with proactive network monitoring, traffic analysis, fault isolation, change management and policy-driven remedial actions. A sophisticated rule engine enables powerful definition of policies, including automated trigger actions such as execution of predefined scripts, and e-mail or pager notifications. In addition, Advanced Call Home capabilities allow customers to configure Brocade Network Advisor to proactively notify their support organization before any issues impact services.
• Optimized Applications: Optimizes application traffic and performance to manage service level agreements (SLAs) via end-to-end network monitoring, automation and policy management. In addition, Brocade Network Advisor supports configuration of quality of service (QoS) on a per-host or a per-virtual machine (VM) basis. Precision monitoring helps determine network congestion to identify application impact, and deep integration with partner management products helps streamline problem resolution across different administrative silos.
• Investment Protection: Provides tight integration via standards-based APIs with industry-leading partner products for server management, storage management, virtualization management and data center orchestration. Examples include VMware vCenter, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center (TPC) and IBM Systems Director.

"Customers are experiencing significantly high operating expenses associated with disparate islands of tools and fragmented lifecycle management processes," said Jason Nolet, Vice President, Data Center and Enterprise Networking Group at Brocade. "Brocade Network Advisor addresses these pain points with a robust, scalable architecture that integrates SAN, Ethernet, MPLS and wireless management into a single, cohesive management application. Most importantly, Brocade Network Advisor helps reduce customer OpEx by minimizing training, increasing automation and consolidating tools."

"Managing a complex network infrastructure in a dynamic enterprise customer lab facility is definitely a challenge," said Mike Poulson, Program Manager, Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center. "Our network configuration changes from week to week and devices are added and removed on a regular basis to support different customer test requirements. Using multiple tool sets to manage and capture the entire view of the network can be challenging and time-consuming. In order to efficiently and effectively manage our network infrastructure, a single unified network management platform covering LAN and SAN on a single user interface will be a significant benefit."

"Managing a broad network infrastructure efficiently is a challenge most network operators face. It’s not only extremely time-consuming but requires multiple sets of tools to capture the entire view of the network," said IJ Rosenblum, Director of IT, BOK Center/Tulsa Convention Center. "IT managers can benefit from a single unified management platform that helps to automate processes and manage the entire network from SAN to wired and wireless LAN on a single user interface. It’s a huge benefit that can minimize operational overhead and improve network reliability."

Seamless Upgrade
from Existing Brocade Management Solutions
For existing Brocade IronView Network Manager (INM) or Brocade Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) customers, Brocade Network Advisor will provide a seamless upgrade path and functional continuity. Brocade will also provide migration guides, training material and education courses to help ensure a seamless transition to the new product.

Availability
Brocade Network Advisor is scheduled to be available in November 2010. Additional details on licensing options will be available at that time. In addition to featuring a complimentary management option for smaller networks, Brocade Network Advisor will be available as a full-featured 75-day evaluation copy.