Brocade Unveils Server Consolidation and Network Convergence Vision for Next-Generation Data Centre Evolution

New Brocade Switch and Converged Network Adapters Provide Seamless, End-to-End FCoE Solution from Server to Storage Target

April 7, 2009: Brocade® today announced the industry’s only end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-based solution that brings the Fibre Channel (FC) standard and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) together. Brocade made the announcement at a press conference during Storage Networking World 2009, where the company also reiterated its continued commitment to a customer-driven and pragmatic approach to providing solutions that support emerging technologies. This approach emphasises the importance of utilising non-disruptive and rational deployment models, while protecting and extending existing data centre investments.

As part of the announcement, Brocade introduced two new products that support FCoE and CEE:

New Brocade 8000 Switch and Brocade 1010/1020 Converged Network Adapters
• The new Brocade 8000 Switch is a multiprotocol, Layer 2, top-of-rack FCoE switch with 24 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) CEE ports and eight FC ports supporting 8 Gbps speeds – enabling the consolidation of input/output (I/O) storage and data networking ports at the server edge.
• The newly introduced Brocade converged network adapters (CNAs) provide up to 500,000 IOs per second (IOPS) per port and are available in two models: the Brocade 1010 single-port CNA and the Brocade 1020 dual-port CNA. The Brocade CNAs are one of the first-to-market single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) CNAs that provide classic Ethernet capabilities based on the common TCP/IP protocol suite, converged Ethernet and storage transport functionality over a single link and deliver 10 Gbps FCoE connectivity from servers to SAN fabrics and to local area networks (LANs).
• Within the rack, the Brocade 8000 connects to servers equipped with Brocade 1010 and 1020 CNAs. Combined with the Brocade 8000, the Brocade CNAs form a seamless end-to-end FCoE connectivity solution, from server to storage target, with a common management platform via Brocade Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM™), industry-leading performance and superior Quality of Service (QoS) to meet the demands of next-generation data centres.
• The Brocade 8000 is based on Brocade Fabric OS® (FOS) with extensions covering FCoE and CEE, and it delivers distributed intelligence throughout the network, while enabling a wide range of value-added applications and advanced fabric services, including Brocade Fabric Watch, Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking, and end-to-end Advanced Performance Monitoring.
• Both the Brocade 8000 Switch and Brocade 1010 and 1020 CNAs are managed by Brocade DCFM, which enables the management of traditional FC SAN and new FCoE/CEE environments from a single application. Brocade DCFM Enterprise also provides a non-disruptive upgrade path from Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) or Brocade Fabric Manager.
• Compared to competitive offerings, the Brocade 8000 consumes half the power, provides twice the FC bandwidth in a 50 percent smaller form factor, and also offers a CEE-to-FC subscription rate that is approximately four times better.
• Brocade Global Services offers FCoE implementation services designed to assist customers in installing, configuring, and integrating Brocade FCoE solutions.

Technology and Business Benefits of FCoE and CEE Solutions
• FC Investment Protection: FCoE integrates seamlessly with existing FC environments and utilises the familiar rich set of storage-aware FC fabric services, management applications, and utilities in the data centre.
• Server Edge I/O Consolidation: Transporting storage and networking data over CEE reduces the number of server adapters, cables, and required switch ports—which in turn simplifies cabling and reduces power consumption and cooling costs.
• Server I/O Virtualisation: FCoE and CEE 10 GbE interfaces provide the scalability needed in highly demanding virtualised server environments, and they offer converged interfaces that facilitate virtualised application mobility to meet the dynamic needs of enterprise data centres.
• Incremental Server-SAN Attach: As a result of reduced capital expenses, server costs are reduced, enabling investment in additional servers and higher rates of servers attached to SANs.

Quotes from some major players in the ICT industry:
• EMC: “FCoE and CEE will play a key role in virtual data centre environments,” said Barbara Robidoux, EMC vice president, Storage Product Marketing. “EMC and Brocade are continuing their long-standing partnership to address customers’ next-generation data centre requirements. Network convergence with FCoE and CEE is a major component of these new data centre architectures. Together these technologies provide the networking performance and flexibility that a virtual data centre requires. They also help customers address some of their major data centre challenges, including maximising utilisation, reducing operating costs, and lowering capital expenditures, all while providing investment protection for existing Fibre Channel investments.”
• HDS: “FCoE integrates seamlessly with existing Fibre Channel environments and utilises the familiar set of storage-aware Fibre Channel fabric services, management applications, and utilities in the data centre that our customers have enjoyed for years. Through our partnership with Brocade, we are committed to protecting our customers’ existing Fibre Channel investments while allowing them to leverage emerging technologies such as FCoE and CEE,” said Asim Zaheer, vice president of product and competitive marketing, Hitachi Data Systems.
• HP: “Customers are looking to lower costs by simplifying management, improving energy efficiency and reducing power consumption within their technology infrastructures,” said Bob Wilson, vice president of Storage Platforms, StorageWorks Division, HP. “Customers interested in deploying FCoE will be able to consolidate SAN and LAN server traffic while reducing cable requirements and simplifying management through HP’s broad storage portfolio and Brocade’s 8000 switch.”
• IBM: “Convergence of Fibre Channel and Ethernet fabrics into a common fabric is an important goal of IBM’s dynamic infrastructure initiatives,” said Jim Comfort, IBM Vice President of Enterprise Initiatives. “IBM has a long history of working with Brocade. We have been an active participant in development of industry standards for FCoE/CEE in partnership with Brocade and many other companies in the IT industry. We anticipate that customers will be anxious to achieve the environmental and operational efficiencies that can result from deployment of converged fabrics.”
• Microsoft: “As our customers look to create a more dynamic data centre with Microsoft virtualisation and management software, technologies such as FCoE will serve as a foundation in the future to achieve that and reduce operating costs,” said Dai Vu, director, virtualization solutions marketing at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft has announced plans to support FCoE with an upcoming logo program and we look forward to Brocade’s participation to qualify their FCoE adapters for use by our mutual customers.”
• NetApp: “With the industry’s first native FCoE storage system, NetApp fully supports Brocade’s new line of FCoE switches and CNAs to provide customers with added flexibility, efficiency, and performance in the data centre,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing for NetApp. “With a strong relationship that dates back to 2001, Brocade and NetApp are committed to working together to help promote and advance FCoE technology, enabling customers to consolidate and streamline their data centres.”
• Oracle: “Oracle and Brocade have a proven track record of delivering industry-leading solutions for enterprises and data centres. Oracle is pleased to continue to collaborate with Brocade to provide validated configurations for Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM with 8 Gbps Fibre Channel server connectivity and storage networking. Together, our work helps drive advanced features and provide industry-leading price/performance, utilisation, and scalability for today’s virtualised environments. In addition, Oracle and Brocade are extending our collaboration to include other emerging technologies such as FCoE and CEE for use in conjunction with Oracle VM, to simplify and facilitate virtualised application mobility in order to meet the dynamic needs of our customers,” said Monica Kumar, Senior Director, Linux, Virtualization and Open Source Marketing, Oracle.
• Sun: “Sun has a long history of working with Brocade to deliver better value to customers. Transporting storage and networking data over Converged Enhanced Ethernet allows our customers to reduce the number of server adapters, cables, and switch ports - reducing overall system power consumption and cooling costs,” said Gautam Chanda, Group Manager, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• VMware: “As our customers move toward cloud computing, they are increasingly interested in aggregating their IT resources, including server, storage, and network assets, to work as an efficient, unified utility,” said Shekar Ayyar, vice president of infrastructure alliances at VMware. “The VMware platform is on the leading edge of this trend, giving our customers the foundation for cloud computing. We are pleased to work with Brocade, whose new switches and network adapters aim to provide flexible, converged solutions that can help our customers improve the reliability and manageability of cloud-based IT services.”

Source: Spreckley Partners
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