… Brocade …

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced support for Windows Server 2012 server across all product lines, including the company’s FC SAN and Ethernet fabric solutions.
 
Together with Windows Server 2012, Brocade networks simplify operations and management for virtualized cloud data centers, which serve as the infrastructure for enterprises and service providers in supporting their data center initiatives such as scale-out server virtualization, private cloud deployments and software-defined networking (SDN).

To ensure compatibility and enable new networking functionality with Windows Server 2012, Brocade has implemented enhancements across its SAN and Ethernet fabric switching and adapter products that help enable new features such as:

• Virtual FC: Simplifies and enables direct access to reliable, performance FC SAN storage by multiple-guest VM partitions in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V environments. This enables distributed workload clustering and dynamic live migration of HA applications such as Exchange or SQL Server across VMs without impacting workflows or requiring SAN reconfiguration.
• Dynamic Circuit Network (DCN): Enables QoS configuration from a Data Center Bridging (DCB) network. This allows users to initiate dedicated allocation of network bandwidth for high-demand, real-time applications and network services. DCN support has been added to the adapter family, with DCB enabled in all products.
• Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE): As a component of network virtualization strategy, the company is reaffirming its commitment to provide future support for NVGRE in Brocade Ethernet fabric switches. NVGRE is the Microsoft-recommended virtualization mechanism for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Network Virtualization deployments.

These new capabilities offer enterprise IT and cloud providers storage and networking options that help ensure non-stop operations, increase business agility and optimize application performance. Brocade also now supports interoperability and integration with Microsoft System Center 2012. By working with the System Center team to test and build integrations, organizations can manage any Brocade network as part of a complete Windows-based cloud environment.

"Windows Server 2012 was built from the cloud up and introduces innovations such as software-defined networking and NVGRE for network virtualization and isolation to help enable cloud deployments," said Mike Schutz, GM, Windows Server Marketing, Microsoft. "From the early design stages of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft worked closely with Brocade to give customers new networking technologies such as software-defined networking via NVGRE and virtual FC for more dynamic connectivity to storage resources."

Windows Server 2012 is a dynamic, available and cost-effective server platform that enables organizations to deploy private or hybrid clouds in a flexible IT environment that adapts to changing business needs. New and enhanced features provide performance and scalability to enable a multi-tenant infrastructure where networking, compute, and storage resources are completely isolated between tenants on the same host. For hosting providers, it includes the ability to isolate tenants, gain insight into infrastructure resource usage, and provide new services to help create additional revenue streams. It also offers tools to help customers make the transition from on-premises to hosted environments, while continuing to provide the services and reliability demanded by enterprise, mid-market, and small businesses.

"To support next-generation cloud environments, many new networking technologies require support in the operating system to help organizations realize the full benefit of highly virtualized IT architectures," said Jason Nolet, VP, Data Center Networking Group, at Brocade. "By working closely with the Microsoft engineering team in the early stages of the new OS’s development, we have ensured that Brocade Ethernet and FC fabric solutions work with Windows Server 2012 as well as deliver innovative new networking functionality for highly virtualized, cloud-based data centers."