Brocade Unveils the Brocade DCX Backbone for Evolving Data Center Networks

Provides Unprecedented Levels of Performance, Scalability, and Efficiency for
Data Centers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brocade(R)
(Nasdaq: BRCD), the leading provider of data center networking solutions that
help enterprises connect and manage their information, today introduced the
Brocade DCX(TM) Backbone, the first in a new class of high-performance data
center networking products designed to address the demanding requirements of
the evolving data center.
Built on four generations of proven data center technology and designed to
integrate seamlessly with existing Brocade products -- including existing
McDATA solutions -- the Brocade DCX provides industry breakthroughs in terms
of performance, scalability, and efficiency. As a result, customers can use
the Brocade DCX to build data center fabrics that enable extremely high levels
of consolidation and cost savings along with lower deployment and operational
risk.
"The virtual server phenomenon has been awesome to watch. Massive
consolidation, efficiency improvements and fluidity are all now possible --
assuming that the rest of the infrastructure can support it," said Enterprise
Strategy Group Founder and Senior Analyst Steve Duplessie. "The Brocade DCX
Backbone has the same value proposition, and actually should make production
virtualization deployments happen more rapidly by taking away many of the
performance and scalability concerns that server virtualization may present
downstream. Bandwidth, density, power consumption and scale can really matter
when you are collapsing thousands of physical servers down to hundreds."
The Brocade DCX plays a key role in delivering on the Brocade Data Center
Fabric (DCF) architecture announced in October 2007. The Brocade DCF is an
architectural framework that allows customers to evolve their data center
infrastructures for maximum performance, flexibility, and investment
protection, while enabling important industry trends such as server
virtualization and the greening of the data center.
"SunGard is looking forward to upgrading both the mainframe FICON and the
Open Systems Fibre Channel environments with Brocade DCX Backbone technology,"
said Tom Tucker, Storage Product Director for SunGard. "It will offer higher
performance to our customers, and allow SunGard to consolidate individual
directors and switches into this high port count Backbone product for ease of
management in our constantly changing environment."
"We have used Brocade technology for many years at the heart of our data
center," said Bertram Schon, Chief Technology Officer at Lufthansa Systems.
"As we evolve our data center fabric architecture to meet the growing needs of
our users, the DCX Backbone provides native interoperability and the
lowest-risk way to evolve our architecture for new levels of performance and
capabilities for many years to come."
"The demand for applications and data in our business continues to grow,
and our infrastructure must grow seamlessly and non-disruptively," said Germar
Braam, Lead Architect of KPN. "To meet these needs, we chose to evolve our
data center fabric architecture with the 8 Gbit/sec Brocade DCX Backbone."
"We are excited to get the 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel Brocade DCX Backbone
installed in the EDEKA data center in Hamburg," said Rainer Zander, head of
the EDEKA Data Center in Hamburg. "The Brocade DCX enables seamless
integration with our existing infrastructure, sustaining our future growth in
storage and performance as part of a global data center fabric architecture."
The new Brocade DCX platform brings many new and enhanced capabilities to
customers to drive higher levels of consolidation, cost savings, and data
center efficiencies:
The Brocade DCX Offers the Highest Levels of Performance and Scalability:
To facilitate broad expansion and greater mobility of virtualized servers and
networked storage, the Brocade DCX provides the industry's highest
performance, joining the Brocade 48000 Director as the industry's first
solutions with 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel capabilities. With up to 896 ports of
8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel, the Brocade DCX provides more than five times the
switching bandwidth of existing SAN directors and supports eight times as many
virtual servers.
The Brocade DCX Utilizes Innovative Adaptive Networking Services to Better
Enable Server Virtualization: The Brocade Adaptive Networking services
features included in the Brocade DCX enable the fabric to dynamically allocate
shared resources as changes occur in the requirements of virtual servers and
networked storage. If congestion occurs (or is predicted), the fabric can
automatically adjust bandwidth and other resources according to defined
service levels -- helping to ensure that higher-priority workloads dynamically
receive the resources they need.
The Brocade DCX Offers the Highest Levels of Interoperability and
Flexibility: Designed for investment protection and extension, the Brocade DCX
is fully interoperable with Brocade and existing McDATA SANs, complementing
the Brocade family of data center infrastructure products -- including the
Brocade M6140, Brocade Mi10K, and Brocade 48000 directors; Brocade 200E,
Brocade 4900, and Brocade 5000 switches; and Brocade SAN extension solutions.
Moreover, the Brocade DCX provides comprehensive and flexible deployment
options, including the capability to support Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over
Ethernet (FCoE), Data Center Ethernet (DCE), Gigabit Ethernet, and iSCSI
protocols.
The Brocade DCX Simplifies Data Center Management: The Brocade DCX
supports advanced fabric applications for data migration, continuous
replication, and data encryption, enabling customers to better protect and
secure their corporate data. The new platform is also supported by a broad
range of network management tools, including offerings from Brocade and its
OEM Partners.
The Brocade DCX Continues Brocade's Leadership in Energy Efficiency:
Reducing energy consumption and accommodating data growth are critical
requirements in today's IT strategies. The Brocade DCX is 10 times more
power-efficient per unit of bandwidth than competitive offerings, allowing
customers to better manage data center energy requirements and operational
costs.
"The Brocade DCX Backbone sets a new standard for data center networks,"
said Ian Whiting, Vice President and General Manager for the Brocade Data
Center Infrastructure Division. "Through massive consolidation of SANs,
virtual server networks and Data Center Ethernet networks, the Brocade DCX
Backbone will enable customers to drive significant costs out of their data
center operations while ensuring the performance, scalability, and five-nines
availability required for current and future applications."
The Brocade DCX is available today from Brocade and is supported by a
broad portfolio of Brocade professional and support services. The new platform
is also immediately available from Sun Microsystems, and is expected to be
available from all Brocade OEM Partners during the first half of 2008.
About Brocade
Brocade is a leading provider of data center networking solutions that
help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most
efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are
better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data
management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at
http://www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com.
Brocade OEM Partner/Reseller Quotes
EMC - "Our customers continue to deploy both server and storage
virtualization at an ever-growing pace as a way of simplifying their
environments and to improve utilization," said Barbara Robidoux, Vice
President, EMC Storage Product Marketing. "We expect that the Brocade DCX
Backbone will further help to optimize the connection of virtual servers to
networked storage. Its ability to facilitate a single data center fabric,
managed by a common framework, will be seen as a key asset by customers."
HP - "HP continues to provide customers with data center solutions that
combine availability, massive scalability, and unparalleled performance for
the most demanding storage environments, so the Brocade DCX Backbone aligns
perfectly with our SAN connectivity solutions," said Rick Steffens, Vice
President, StorageWorks Division, HP.
Hitachi Data Systems - "As virtualization continues to grow as an integral
part of the data center and applications are dynamically provisioned or
quickly moved from one machine to another, data center managers must ensure
that their infrastructures can support these kinds of performance demands,"
said Steve TenBarge, Vice President, Global Product Marketing, Hitachi Data
Systems. "The scalability of the Brocade DCX Backbone, when combined with the
performance provided by Hitachi platforms, such as the flagship Universal
Storage Platform V, will result in one of the highest-performing storage
solutions attainable in the market today."
NetApp - "With the demands that virtual servers are putting on data center
infrastructure, we see real value in the innovative connectivity options of
the Brocade DCX Backbone to support both current and emerging protocols,
whether Fibre Channel or IP," said Jay Kidd, Chief Marketing Officer, NetApp.
"Our customers continue to demand solutions that will help them in the process
of unifying and transforming their data centers. The Brocade DCX, alongside
NetApp unified storage solutions, helps do just that and will be a welcome
addition for customers looking to consolidate end-to-end data center
management, from servers to storage."
Sun - "Brocade's DCX Backbone can be easily integrated into customers'
existing infrastructures," said David Kenyon, Vice President Storage
Marketing, Sun Microsystems. "Our customers will be able to fully utilize
their existing assets alongside the Brocade DCX, providing them with full
investment protection for their data center infrastructures. The performance,
scalability, and interoperability with all types of SAN environments will
allow for reduced management costs and TCO."
Changhong Zarva - "We have collaborated with Brocade to design solutions
to meet the incredible consolidation demands or our customers," said Chengwei
Zhong, Vice President, Changhong Zarva, a Chinese distributor. "The Brocade
DCX Backbone provides the scale and performance to serve as the core of an
architecture built for the most demanding applications, both today and for
years to come."
Application Provider Quotes
Oracle - "Oracle's portfolio of world class products and services
including Oracle Applications, Oracle Database, Oracle VM and Oracle
Unbreakable Linux Support, together with Brocade's DCX Backbone offer
customers the enterprise software and infrastructure for building
cost-effective, high performance and scalable solutions for a new generation
of data centers," said Monica Kumar, Senior Director Linux and Open Source
Product Marketing. "By adding the Brocade DCX Backbone to the Oracle Validated
Configurations testing program, we look forward to delivering best practices
for deployment of this enterprise-class infrastructure while driving down
costs for our customers."
Virtual Iron - "There is tremendous benefit for enterprises implementing
the Brocade DCX in combination with Virtual Iron solutions in their data
center fabrics," said Virtual Iron CEO Ed Walsh. "The Brocade DCX Backbone's
high performance and ability to dynamically adjust bandwidth and priority for
applications on the data center fabric allows Virtual Iron customers to
dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of managing and operating their
enterprise data centers with server virtualization." Our clients find the
combination of Virtual Iron's 'Enterprise Server Virtualization Made Easy' and
Brocade's DCX Backbone a winning combination."
Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are
registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, and SAN Health are
trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States
and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or
may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or
services of their respective owners.
SOURCE Brocade

Media Relations, Jil Backstrom, +1-720-558-4774, jil.backstrom@brocade.com; or
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Yellin of Ogilvy PR, +1-415-677-2714, ian.yellin@ogilvypr.com