New Brocade Extension Platform Improves Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives via Superior WAN Link Utilization and Unique Failover Functionality; Extends Fabric Vision Technology over Distance to Provide Network Control and Visibility for Non-Stop Business Operations
Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD), the leader in data center fabric networking solutions, today announced a new extension platform that enables enterprises to achieve significantly shorter recovery points and faster recovery times for restoring data and applications in the event of a disaster, or when performing routine backup and replication tasks over unreliable Wide Area Network (WAN) links. The new Disaster Recovery (DR) platform also extends Brocade® Fabric Vision™ technology between data centers to automate monitoring, increase insight, and simplify troubleshooting over distance to automatically detect WAN anomalies, help ensure performance, and avoid unplanned downtime.
Enterprises today face significant challenges from the explosive growth of data and application workload traffic driven by virtualization, which is putting considerable pressure on IT to keep data highly available. According to IDC, disaster recovery requirements have become increasingly stringent for their mission-critical applications, with 84 percent of enterprises having RPOs of less than an hour and 78 percent having RTOs of less than four hours. 1
“With stored data expected to grow at a 44 percent CAGR over the next five years, enterprises are demanding that their recovery solutions meet ever higher standards in keeping data available amid a wide variety of increasingly frequent natural and man-made disasters,” said Eric Burgener, research director for storage at IDC. “Furthermore, end users are expecting to access their data on a 7×24 basis, forcing enterprises to meet their demands for “always on” application services.”
To address these challenges and to provide near-zero downtime and continuous application availability, Brocade has expanded its Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN portfolio with the addition of the Brocade 7840 Extension Switch, which delivers a six-fold increase in performance, along with unprecedented availability and simplified management between remote data centers. The solution also doubles the performance, at half the cost, compared to WAN optimization appliances that are often mismatched when deployed as a DR alternative.
To complement the new switch, Brocade has also extended Fabric Vision technology between data centers to provide new levels of control and visibility to pinpoint problems faster and avoid unplanned outages. This new functionality reduces the complexity and operating costs for remote data centers, helping them to achieve always-on operations with maximum application uptime.
“Managing multiple data centers is inherently complex and time-intensive,” said Jack Rondoni, vice president, Storage Networking, at Brocade. “By deploying the Brocade 7840 Extension Switch with enhanced Fabric Vision technology, organizations can create better solutions that meet or exceed their requirements and expectations for faster replication and recovery to achieve always-on operations.”
In addition, the company also announced the Brocade FC16-64, a new port blade for the Brocade DCX® 8510 Director that provides the industry’s highest density and most energy-efficient connectivity to maximize system utilization and reduce both capital and operating costs. The new blade increases Brocade DCX 8510 scalability up to 512 Gen 5 Fibre Channel ports with a total system bandwidth of 10.2 Terabits per second (Tbps). Each blade consumes 70 percent less power compared to competitive offerings, while simultaneously increasing port density by 33 percent and reducing cabling requirements by 75 percent—greatly improving operational efficiency.
Brocade 7840 Improves Enterprise Disaster Recovery Readiness
Furthering the company’s reputation for innovation in storage fabrics, Brocade 7840 switches offer both the industry’s first 40 Gigabits per second (Gbps) and 10 Gbps FCIP connectivity options, with data throughput speeds that are at least six times faster than competitive solutions. Brocade 7840 systems deliver an unprecedented 80 Gbps of application data throughput while securing data flows over distance with 256-bit IPsec encryption without a performance penalty.
In addition, Brocade 7840 switches significantly improve replication performance over distance using data compression and disk and tape protocol acceleration. Other advanced extension features that maximize availability and increase overall network reliability include:
· Non-disruptive Upgrades: Facilitate always-on business operations and maximize application uptime with the industry’s only WAN-side non-disruptive firmware upgrades.
· Extension Trunking: Combines multiple WAN connections into a single, logical, high-bandwidth trunk, providing active load balancing and network resilience to protect against WAN link failures.
· Adaptive Rate Limiting: Dynamically adjusts bandwidth sharing between minimum and maximum rate limits to optimize bandwidth utilization and maintain WAN performance during disruptions.
Fabric Vision Technology Enables Long-Distance Monitoring, Management, and Diagnostics
Unique to the Brocade Fibre Channel SAN family, and now extended over distance, Fabric Vision technology is a hardware and software solution that helps enterprises accelerate new deployments, optimize resources, dramatically reduce operational costs, and overcome infrastructure complexity between data centers.
With Fabric Vision technology, administrators have new tools and automation capabilities that simplify day-to-day management tasks, increase productivity, and enable proactive monitoring of critical metrics between data centers to automatically detect WAN anomalies, help ensure performance, and avoid unplanned downtime.
Key features for DR include:
• Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS): Simplifies monitoring with policy-based automation between data centers to automatically detect WAN anomalies and avoid unplanned downtime.
• Flow Vision: Accelerates troubleshooting of end-to-end I/O flows over distance with integrated diagnostics and eliminates the need for expensive third-party tools.
• Dashboards: Quickly discover and resolve WAN network issues via root-cause analysis and point-in-time playback. In addition, administrators can view all critical information from thin-client, Web-accessible dashboards, which saves significant administrative time and effort.
Availability
The Brocade 7840 Extension Switch, extended Fabric Vision technology, and the Brocade FC16-64 port blade for the Brocade DCX 8510 will be available this calendar quarter through select Brocade OEM partners, including EMC, HDS, and others.
Partner Quotes
“Data protection is fundamental to IT transformation and has enabled EMC customers to move backup and recovery and replication from a cost center to a business enabler. The increased performance and functionality of the Brocade 7840 is a strategic addition to our Connectrix® family that increases the overall value of the EMC Protection Storage Architecture.”
Barry Ader, Vice President, Product Marketing, EMC Corporation
“Keeping our mutual customers operating nonstop is more than just planning for disaster recovery—it’s about building a resilient enterprise. With significant improvements in throughput, along with improved network control and insight, the Brocade 7840 is an ideal high-performance data center extension platform for backup and replication that will improve our customer’s data and application availability.”
Linda Xu, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems
