Brocade Advancing VCS Fabric

With a large Ethernet fabric install base of more than 1,400 customers worldwide and 400,000 VDX switch ports shipped to date, Brocade Comunication Systems, Inc. is announcing a number of advancements to its VCS Fabric technology and VDX switch portfolio, including new VCS fabric capabilities that provide native multitenancy, storage-aware networking and 100GbE performance for the demanding data center environments.

32 Flex Ports (FC/Ethernet/FCoE), 10/40GbE top-of-rack switches

Brocade has also unveiled a complete, end-to-end blueprint for delivering scalable data center multitenancy, from the server to the WAN.

Below are the announcements.

Multitenancy Blueprint: A Guide for Simplified Deployment

The most complete end-to-end blueprint for delivering multitenancy at scale from server to WAN.

VCS Virtual Fabric:
Network-based Approach to Multitenant Scale

Provides an alternative to overlay networks for multitenancy at scale; VCS Virtual Fabric uses proven, standards-based network segmentation techniques – making it easier to incorporate this new capability into the network with zero learning curve.
Offers an evolutionary approach to multitenancy that minimizes disruption to current operational and organizational models.
Is hypervisor-agnostic.
Supports cloud orchestration frameworks through open APIs.

VCS AutoQoS:
Extending VCS Fabric Intelligence to Storage

A new VCS fabric capability that automatically recognizes and prioritizes storage traffic, reducing capital and operational costs.

New top-of-rack switches:

VDX 6740 family of 10/40GbE switches
VCS Virtual Fabric support in the new Brocade VDX switch ASIC.
40GbE to 160GbE trunks offering high uplink capacity in a leaf switch.
32 Flex Ports (FC/Ethernet/FCoE) providing flexibility and investment protection.
24MB deep buffers with Dynamic Buffering.
ASIC support for OpenFlow 1.3.
Support for 10GbE and 10GBASE-T.

In addition, Brocade announced a new 100GbE line card for the VDX 8770 modular chassis.

The VDX 6740 and VDX 6740-T are available for order now. U.S. list price starts at $15,995 ($833/10GbE port). The VDX 8770 100GbE blade is planned for availability in the first half of 2014. The networking solutions are available direct, through Brocade channel partners and via Brocade Network Subscription.

Jason Nolet, VP data center switching and routing, Brocade, said: “As cloud computing matures and is increasingly adopted in production environments, new requirements are emerging and deficiencies in legacy architectures are becoming more pronounced. Our continued innovation in Brocade VCS Fabric technology addresses the most challenging data center requirements, including network multitenancy, network intelligence for exploding storage growth and the emerging adoption of 100 GbE for ever-increasing bandwidth consumption.”

Brad Frey, senior lab systems engineer, Symantec Corp., said: “We continue to look for ways to simplify our network operations, to be efficient in every way. The Brocade VDX 6740 gave me a very positive experience. We tested the 10Gb-T, which is important for connectivity over copper, for high performance, consistency and reliability. The initial setup was easy and the overall speed tests were extremely fast. I have quite a lot of experience with switches from numerous vendors and, in comparison, the Brocade VDX is very well constructed and easier to use than most. I’m also very interested in VCS fabrics and this has given us a peek into the flexibility and scalability that is possible with this type of technology.”

Brad Casemore, research director, datacenter networks, IDC, said: “The ability to securely isolate tenants in a shared infrastructure environment is paramount to today’s cloud-service providers and to enterprises adopting private cloud. Traditional approaches to network segmentation have been around for years, and virtualization and cloud computing have exposed their inherent limitations, especially in relation to flexibility and scalability. Technologies such as Brocade’s VCS Virtual Fabric promise to address this challenge by delivering multitenancy at scale, enabling enterprises to maximize the number of tenants they can support by leveraging segmentation constructs with which network administrators are familiar, thus minimizing both the learning curve and operational overhead.”