Brocade Ethernet Fabric Solutions

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced a true Ethernet fabric switching solutions that are purpose-built for virtualized and cloud-optimized data centers.

The Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches
are a new family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) offerings that
revolutionize Layer 2 Ethernet networking to create the first true
Ethernet fabrics. The switches eliminate the need for Spanning Tree
Protocol (STP), collapsing the access and aggregation networking
layers to create a flat, multipath, deterministic network that is ideal
for virtualized environments. This approach provides virtual
machines (VMs) a greater sphere of mobility, increases network
utilization, creates more resilient networks and simplifies the
management of data center networks.

"Over half of all IT workloads will run on virtual machines by the
end of this year, with that number climbing to beyond 70 percent by the
end of 2013. Brocade has architected a flat, high-performance and highly
scalable data center network solution that promises to help their
customers scale their virtual environments," said Cindy Borovick, Vice President, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure and Datacenter Networks at IDC.

"The new Brocade VDX 6720 switches, powered by VCS technology, are a
natural evolution of Brocade’s trusted status in the data center –
taking the best attributes from Fibre Channel and applying that
knowledge to form a comprehensive Ethernet fabric."f2"Today more and
more customers are moving toward virtualized cloud infrastructures to
significantly reduce IT cost and complexity, increase efficiency and
improve agility," said Parag Patel, Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware. "Brocade’s
new VCS technology and the innovative VDX product line present
customers with a tremendous opportunity to simplify, scale and easily
manage their virtualized data center network, offering a next step for
customers implementing the IT-as-a-Service model."

Compared to classic Ethernet architectures, Ethernet fabrics allow
all paths to be active and provide greater scalability while reducing
management complexity

The Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches are available in one- or two-rack-unit (1U or 2U) form factors and provide the ability to scale from 16 to 60 ports
with pay-as-you-grow Ports on Demand (POD) licensing. The switches
provide 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) wire-speed performance from any
port to any port, with latency of 600 nanoseconds (ns). The
switches are based on low-latency, lossless, 10 Gbps Data Center
Bridging (DCB) technology and are capable of running all types of data
and storage traffic – including traditional IP, iSCSI, CIFS, NFS and Fibre Channel over Ethernet
(FCoE). The Brocade VDX 6720 switches protect customers’ existing
investments by supporting their current server, hypervisor and storage
choices, and by interfacing with existing network infrastructures.

The Brocade VDX 6720 switches are the first products to deliver Brocade
VCS technology, announced in June 2010. This technology, which includes
virtual cluster switching capabilities, transforms data center networks
through innovations that are optimized for highly virtualized and cloud
environments.

In particular, Brocade VCS technology:

• Enables organizations to build the first true Ethernet fabrics.
  These fabrics are inherently multipathing and resilient, utilizing the
  IETF industry standard Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links
  (TRILL) and eliminating the need for inefficient Spanning Tree Protocol
  (STP).
• Provides a fully distributed control plane so that every switch is
  aware of the entire network topology. The VM network characteristics
  and configuration automatically migrate with the VM by using Automatic
  Migration of Port Profiles (AMPP) technology. The Brocade VDX 6720
  switching cluster initially supports a mobility sphere of 600 10 GbE
  ports and 8,000 VMs.
• Simplifies configuration management by treating the cluster as a
  single logical switch. This management approach significantly reduces
  the number of elements being managed in the fabric to reduce operating
  cost and complexity.

"Today’s infrastructure is not sufficient to handle new applications,
and not flexible enough for a world where applications are mobile. It’s
clear that data center networks need to be upgraded to increase
performance, reduce latency and eliminate downtime. They also need to be
designed specifically to support highly virtualized and cloud-optimized
data centers," said Dave Stevens, Brocade CTO. "We are
delivering upon our Brocade One™ unified network strategy and vision by
dramatically simplifying networks and increasing scalability without
adding complexity. Today, the Brocade VDX 6720 switches, featuring
Brocade VCS technology, deliver true cloud-optimized networking for the
first time."

New Brocade Services
Offer Customized Levels of Support
Brocade understands that every network is unique and requires a
different level of technical support to meet critical business
requirements. Brocade Global Services offers different levels of
technical support to meet each customer’s specific needs. To help
customers simplify virtualization deployments in large environments and
maximize the value of their networks, Brocade has invested in
enhancements to the Premier and Premier-Plus Support levels to provide
more personalized, preferential, and proactive experience.

Specifically, the new enhancements
to the Premier levels include:

• Proactive identification of potential network issues with remote monitoring
• Response to network problems before they affect the network through fault management
• Priority access to Brocade expertise 24×7 and accelerated escalation management designed to reduce time to resolution

In addition, to support customers in building end-to-end solutions for
their virtualized data center and transition to Ethernet fabrics,
Brocade Global Services has developed a Virtualized Data Center
Practice. This practice offers assessment, design and implementation
services for cloud-optimized networks.

Pricing and Availability
The Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center switches are available now, starting at $10,700 USD.

Brocade’s customers, technology partners, OEMs and channel partners
voiced their support around this true Ethernet fabric switching
solutions. Through the launch of the new Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center
Switches, the first products to deliver Brocade VCS technology, Brocade
is creating a new class of technologies that are purpose-built for
highly virtualized and cloud-optimized data centers.

Architecting virtualized and cloud-optimized data centers requires close
collaboration between a wide variety of partners to simplify the
customer experience, protect existing investments and enable greater
choice of server, hypervisor and storage offerings. Brocade VDX 6720
Data Center Switches deliver upon the Brocade One unified network
strategy and value proposition by simplifying networks and increasing
scalability without adding complexity.

"VCS will enable us to manage an entire data center as a single giant
logical switch which means reduced complexity and simplification of
management," said Adil Tahiri, Technology Strategy Director, Office of the CTO, Atos Origin.

"Brocade’s Virtual Cluster Switching technology addresses our need to
rapidly scale our virtualized data center environment and achieve high
service levels, while reducing network complexity. We can build large,
flatter networks with greater performance that are much simpler to
manage. It means scalability at lower cost – that’s a big win for us," said Pat Robach, Sr. Manager Cloud Services, Dell IT.

"Today more and more customers are moving toward virtualized cloud
infrastructures to significantly reduce IT cost and complexity, increase
efficiency and improve agility. Brocade’s new VCS technology and the
innovative VDX product line present customers with a tremendous
opportunity to simplify, scale and easily manage their virtualized data
center network, offering a next step for customers implementing the
IT-as-a-Service model," said Parag Patel, VP, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware.

"Dell and Brocade share a common vision for delivering
highly-virtualized, services-on-demand environments through the cloud.
The key to this vision is providing customers true choice and
flexibility regardless of particular cloud model. Brocade’s introduction
of the VDX family of switches with VCS technology is an innovative step
to realizing fully cloud-optimized data centers," said Dario Zamarian, VP and GM, Dell Networking.

"We are helping customers around the world on their journey to the
private cloud by providing a simple and efficient information
infrastructure. Together with Brocade we can accelerate our customers’
journey to a consolidated, elastic private cloud with unified storage
and Ethernet networking solutions that now includes the innovative
family of Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center switches," said Josh Kahn, Vice President, Technical Marketing and Solutions, EMC Corporation.

"What excites me most about Brocade’s new announcement of the VDX
switches is how it makes it easier for customers to converge their
networks around 10 GbE. This convergence will allow Brocade and NetApp
to help our joint customers simplify their IT infrastructure while
building more flexible and efficient networks that can easily scale to
meet the changing needs of their business," said Joel Reich, vice president and general manager, SAN/iSAN business unit, NetApp.