Brocade FC SAN Into EMC ViPR Software-Defined Storage

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced its Gen 5 FC SAN solutions are integrated with the new EMC Corp.‘s ViPR software-defined storage platform.

This approach helps eliminate data center cost and complexity by improving policy-based automation of EMC and non-EMC storage infrastructures, creating a storage architecture for future application deployments. This solution will allow more than 50,000 joint EMC and Brocade customers to realize the virtualization benefits of the ViPR software-defined storage platform within virtualized cloud environments.

Teams from both companies have completed the integration of Brocade Network Advisor SAN management software into ViPR using the industry-standard Storage Management Initiative (SMI) interface. This integration enables customers with both third-party and EMC storage arrays – including the VMAX, VPLEX, VNX, Atmos, and Isilon families – to take advantage of Brocade Gen 5 FC SAN solutions enhanced with Brocade Fabric Vision technology as they transform to a software-defined storage architecture with EMC ViPR. Brocade Network Advisor is sold by EMC as Connectrix Manager Converged Network Edition (CMCNE).

ViPR is a software-defined storage platform that provides the ability to manage both storage infrastructure (called the Control Plane) and the data stored within that infrastructure (called the Data Plane). It masks the complexity behind configuring and managing storage infrastructure and delivers single point-and-click management for complex, heterogeneous storage functions.

With Brocade technology integration, Connectrix SAN customers can now utilize the ViPR platform to enable existing SAN infrastructure to leverage existing storage infrastructures for traditional data center workloads, as well as provision new ViPR Object Data Service and ViPR HDFS Service through access to Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift for next-generation workloads. This complete spectrum of capabilities can be run against enterprise or commodity storage.

Demonstrations of the joint solution are being shown at EMC World.

"We are really excited to collaborate with EMC to enable all FC storage connected to Brocade switches and directors to be part of this revolutionary approach to storage automation and management," said Jason Nolet, VP of data center networking, Brocade. "With ViPR, Brocade FC SAN customers can transform existing heterogeneous physical storage into a simple, extensible and open virtual storage platform, a significant step towards the software-defined data center."

"As a crucial component of today’s storage infrastructure we are very excited with the work we’ve done with Brocade to ensure seamless integration of the networking stack with ViPR," said Christopher Ratcliffe, VP marketing, advanced software division, EMC. "The ability to automate and define policy across the entire storage environment extends our common vision to deliver proven, simple-to-use solutions for storage networks and private clouds with unparalleled ability to transform enterprise data centers. We look forward to continuing our long term strategic relationship to further improve the utilization of our customers’ existing and future storage investments."

The ViPR platform will be available at the end of 2013 from EMC and its network of channel partners.