Dell EMC, Fujitsu, HDS and NetApp Shipping Brocade Gen 6 FC Solutions

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. announced momentum for its Gen 6 FC storage networking solutions with availability from its OEM partners, including Dell, Inc. EMC Corporation, Fujitsu Ltd and NetApp, Inc.

This announcement is in addition to HDS shipping Brocade Gen 6 directors, blade and switch since July, reinforcing FC as the protocol of choice for mission-critical enterprise storage.

A June 2016 Gartner report, The Future of Storage Protocols states: “Storage networking investments are becoming a critical top priority due to the adoption of high-throughput, solid-state and flash storage … Storage performance bottlenecks are moving out of arrays and into the storage network, so FC will remain as the data center storage protocol of choice for the next decade.“

Other findings from the Gartner report include:

• IT’s can scale their services and double or quadruple the number of transactions and/or application performance by upgrading their storage network together with the latest solid-state storage.
• By upgrading the storage network, IT’s can reduce costs. Upgrading consolidates the number of network switches, cables, and host-based adaptors or network interface cards.

FC is generally accepted as a low latency and reliable network infrastructure for storage. Gen 6 FC technology enables organizations to address their performance, reliability, and scalability requirements for the all-flash data center, new data center architectures and next-generation storage technologies.

“We are pleased that the recent Gartner report reiterates the importance of FC as the data center protocol of choice for storage networking for the foreseeable future,” said Jack Rondoni, VP of storage networking, Brocade. “Through our OEM partners, including Dell EMC, Fujitsu, HDS and NetApp, we are already delivering Gen 6 FC solutions that maximize the performance of flash storage and deliver unprecedented reliability and scalability. We plan to have additional announcements in the coming months as more partners launch our Gen 6 platforms.“

“AOL continues to rely on FC for storage connectivity to our most critical systems,” said Dan Pollack, chief architect of storage operations, AOL, Inc.. “We recently started the refresh of our existing infrastructure to Gen 6 FC. AOL is committed to FC for the future when our systems demand extremely high performance and availability.“

Brocade has been first to market with its Gen 6 FC solutions comprised of the Brocade X6 directors, Brocade SX6 extension blade and Brocade G620 switch. Combined with Brocade Fabric Vision technology, Gen 6 FC products enable customers to drive always-on business operations, eliminate performance bottlenecks and adapt to the requirements of digital organizations.

Infographic: FC Matters for Storage
White paper: Data Center Modernization with Brocade Gen 6 FC