Brocade Entry-Level 32Gb FC G610 Storage Switch

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced the G610 a storage switch for always-on connectivity to the all-flash data center.

This switch leverages the company’s Gen 6 FC technology, providing up to 32Gb/s performance, simplicity and enterprise functionality that helps organizations adapt to dynamic workloads and new demands for always-on business operations.

The company also announced expanded monitoring capabilities through Fabric Vision technology with the availability of VM Insight. It delivers proactive visibility into the health and performance of individual VMs to help administrators uncover issues before applications are affected.

Digital transformation, the rapid adoption of flash storage and the emergence of NVMe are driving new requirements for a modern infrastructure that can optimize application performance and adapt to evolving data center needs. To meet those needs, Gen 6 FC SAN solutions are designed to provide digital enterprises with performance, non-stop availability and built-in NVMe capabilities for all-flash data centers.

“The Brocade G610 switch and VM Insight reinforce Brocade’s continued commitment to FC innovation to help customers derive more value from their applications and infrastructure,” said Jack Rondoni, SVP, storage networking, Brocade. “Together with our partner ecosystem, Brocade is making it easy and affordable to deploy FC solutions while extending monitoring capabilities in Fabric Vision technology so customers can have unparalleled visibility of VM-level application performance within the storage network.“

The G610 is an entry-level switch designed for environments ranging from small shared storage fabrics to network edge deployments in data centers. It offers performance, reliability and affordable access to Gen 6 FC storage networking technology.

To support their evolving storage environments, organizations can start with eight ports and grow on demand with up to 24 ports per switch. In addition, the G610 switch is easy to use and install, with a point-and-click user interface that simplifies deployment.

“The use of all-flash arrays for consolidation of mission-critical primary storage workloads is increasing rapidly, and by 2020 IDC predicts that these types of systems will drive over 80% of all primary storage revenues,” said Eric Burgener, research director, storage, IDC. “Flash’s ability to support much denser workload consolidation is demanding higher-performance host connections, and Brocade’s new Gen 6 FC portfolio provides that bandwidth with a proven, trusted and highly secure protocol.“

“Whole-brain imaging is critical to our research but advances in imaging and microscopy place new demands on our network and storage infrastructure every day,” said Jake Carroll, senior information technology manager, research, University of Queensland‘s Queensland Brain Institute. “Brocade Gen 6 FC solutions massively boost data transfer speeds enabling scientists to maximize the benefits of increased image resolution and high data sampling rates.“

The entire Gen 6 product family with Fabric Vision technology includes VM Insight to help organizations achieve visibility into VM-level application performance. Using integrated sensors, this capability allows administrators to monitor VM statistics and quickly identify abnormal VM behaviors. This facilitates troubleshooting and fault isolation while providing intelligence for early detection of application performance degradations to help support critical SLAs. VM Insight extends and complements the automated monitoring, diagnostic and management capabilities enabled by Fabric Vision technology.

HPE shipping Brocade G610 switch today.
“The ability to protect, analyze and transport data reliably and affordably is an enormous competitive advantage,” said Marty Lans, senior director and GM, storage connectivity, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “The combination of HPE 3PAR and Brocade Gen 6 FC solutions has the potential to transform businesses of all shapes and sizes, enabling them to derive maximum benefit from investments in technologies like flash, NVMe, cloud and virtualization. The introduction of the new SN3600B FC switch bolsters our current Gen 6 FC portfolio with a new offering to put FC SAN within reach of even more customers.“

“Dell EMC is committed to delivering all-flash storage solutions that are foundational to our customers’ IT transformation. Our continued collaboration with Brocade to provide Connectrix FC SAN solutions enables organizations to combine the speed and efficiency of all-flash storage with the trusted reliability and availability demanded by today’s data center. The availability of VM Insight also brings a new level of visibility into the storage performance of individual VMs, offering customers another means to monitor and ensure availability of their applications,” said Greg Findlen, VP, integrated offerings, storage division, Dell EMC.

“Brocade is always pushing the boundaries of technological innovation and exploring new ways to help their customers do more. With its Gen 6 FC portfolio, Brocade is bringing even more value to the SAN market. We’re already seeing an enormous demand for long-distance 32 Gbps FC services across a number of data center interconnect projects. Using higher port speeds is key for helping our customers increase efficiency and throughput while at the same time lowering cost and complexity,” said Henning Hinderthur, VP, product line management, optical transport, ADVA Optical Networking.

“The Brocade G610 switch brings FC networking, which is purpose-built for storage, to an affordable price point without compromise for the all-flash data center. Combining the Brocade G610 switch with Emulex’s Gen 6 FC HBAs will offer customers the industry’s most affordable and highest-performing storage network solution,” said Jeff Hoogenboom, GM, Emulex connectivity division, Broadcom Limited.

“Driven by a combination of reliability, value, innovation and investment protection, FC continues to be the go-to technology choice for enterprise storage. The Brocade G610 switch delivers an attractive cost of entry for smaller SAN deployments and edge expansion. And coupling QLogic 2700 Series Gen 6 FC Adapters with Brocade Gen 6 FC switches delivers innovation on multiple fronts, including end-to-end visibility into VM storage performance with VM tagging, and future-proofing for next-generation flash deployments with FC-NVMe,” said Vikram Karvat, VP, marketing, FC storage group, Cavium, Inc./QLogic.

“Fujitsu storage solutions offer the advantages of ultra-fast, all-flash arrays that set performance records. The new Brocade Gen 6 FC switch will allow customers to further optimize the storage performance of their physical and virtual infrastructure,” said Kazuhiko Endo, SVP, head, data center platform business unit, Fujitsu Limited.

“H3C is at the forefront of modernizing data centers so they can manage modern workloads while ensuring HA. Brocade Gen 6 FC storage networks complement our enterprise storage solutions because they are highly efficient and reliable, and give organizations tools like VM Insight to proactively monitor application performance in each VM,” said Dr. Li Li, VP and GM, product sales and marketing, H3C Holding Limited.

“To support their digital transformation initiatives, organizations are deploying flash to build the right application foundation and accelerate innovation. Our innovative storage solutions combined with the new Brocade Gen 6 FC switch brings data center efficiency, scale and visibility through SAN management tools such as VM insight, enabling our customers to achieve automated and agile IT,” said Bob Madaio, VP, infrastructure and solutions marketing, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation.

“Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Brocade are working together to simplify the task of automating and orchestrating SAN provisioning while improving visibility to the overall FC SAN conditions with unique tools like HPE’s SmartSAN and Brocade’s Fabric Vision technology. Today’s data centers are experiencing virtualized application growth at unprecedented rates, making it essential for IT managers to maintain optimal SAN performance all the way to the VM level. To this end, HPE plans to provide VM-level visibility with support for Brocade’s VM Insight in a future SmartSAN release,” said Rupin Mohan, R&D chief technologist, HPE StoreFabric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

“With superb stability, outstanding performance and future-oriented convergence, Huawei’s storage arrays help customers support their most demanding application needs. Brocade’s latest innovation in Gen 6 FC can be leveraged by organizations that are deploying flash in their data centers today. With the availability of VM Insight, even the performance of individual VMs is monitored and optimized,” said Guangbin Meng, president, storage product line, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

“As an enterprise storage leader that pushes the envelope on scalability, Infinidat is delighted to collaborate with Brocade to provide the next FC innovations and we welcome the opportunity to leverage the new Brocade G610 switch for our customers. We view VM Insight as a major step towards providing end-to-end synergy between hypervisors, FC fabrics and storage, which will enable better insights and faster troubleshooting,” said Jacob Broido, chief product officer, Infinidat Ltd.

“Organizations rely on Kaminario’s all-flash arrays to deliver performance and cost efficiency with the ability to flexibly scale to meet the demands of today’s complex storage environments. We continue to adopt the latest technology innovations for our customers, working with Brocade to provide Gen 6 FC solutions. The unprecedented visibility enabled by VM Insight allows us to deliver high-performance storage solutions for mission-critical applications running on virtualized infrastructure,” said Marty Sanders, CTO, Americas, Kaminario, Inc.

“Lenovo and Brocade are partnering to bring to market reliable, high-performing and scalable FC SAN solutions. The availability of Gen 6 FC solutions in combination with differentiated management tools like VM Insight are a perfect fit for our diverse customer base who are investing in flash storage, converged systems, bandwidth-hungry applications and ever-increasing VM densities,” said Kamran Amini, GM, server business unit, data center group, Lenovo Enterprise Solutions, Pte Ltd.

“In a market where every industry and interaction is being digitized, data has quickly become the lifeblood of business. It is critical that these digital enterprises have fast, continuous access to their information to enable new business opportunities and improve competitiveness. The combination of NetApp’s industry-leading flash solutions with the new Brocade G610 switch gives customers an affordable, enterprise solution that delivers a consistent application experience to any user, from any device, anytime,” said Octavian Tanase, SVP, ONTAP, NetApp, Inc.

“Nimble Storage helps organizations build an all-flash data center that optimizes performance, capacity and cost for every application. We are excited that the new Brocade G610 FC switch offers valuable Gen 6 Fabric Vision features such as VM Insight, which deliver a set of visibility tools that complement Nimble’s InfoSight and VMVision,” said Gary O’Neil, VP, alliances, Nimble Storage, Inc.

“Pure Storage all-flash arrays have the speed, simplicity and scale to power mission-critical workloads for organizations of all sizes. Brocade Gen 6 FC solutions deliver the proven reliability our customers depend on, and the new VM insight brings performance optimization and enhanced visibility of individual VMs providing customers with more knowledge about their data center environment,” said Matt Kixmoeller, VP, products, Pure Storage, Inc.

“Tegile all-flash arrays are ideal for latency-sensitive, business-critical workloads such as online transaction processing, real-time analytics, decision support and data warehousing. Providing the Gen 6 FC performance and extended visibility across the storage fabric with VM Insight, Brocade is helping customers reap the benefits of a high-performance infrastructure,” said Rob Commins, VP, corporate marketing, Tegile Systems, Inc.

“Vexata’s mission is to deliver a fast, simple and transformative data infrastructure for all modern applications. With Brocade’s Gen 6 FC solutions paired with Vexata’s Real Time Architecture, enterprises will have access to the most efficient shared storage infrastructure at a performance never seen before. In addition, the Vexata array is being fully qualified with Brocade’s Gen 6 FC portfolio providing customers the confidence that they are deploying the most modern data infrastructure available today,” said Zahid Hussain, CEO, Vexata.

“End-to-end visibility into the application performance of individual VMs has never been more important in today’s increasingly complex IT operations. VMware’s support for Brocade Fabric Vision technology with VM Insight helps organizations obtain the visibility they need to properly manage infrastructure sizing, conduct capacity planning and monitor performance operations. VMware is excited to support a solution that helps manage the growing demands of data centers,” sid Lee Caswell, VP, storage and availability, VMware, Inc.

Availability

The Brocade G610 switch with Gen 6 FC technology is available through the company and its channel partners.
Other firm’s OEM partners plan to start shipping the switch in the 2Q17.
VM Insight is available.