Brocade and EMC switch it up

Brocade has expanded its longstanding OEM relationship with EMC, adding Brocade VCS Ethernet fabric solutions to EMC's Connextrix family of network switches.

Brocade says the move has created the industry's first network switch designed for IP storage.

Gary Denman, Brocade ANZ senior director, says legacy IP network designs were never intended for today's IP applications, such as cloud, mobile, social and big data.

He says IP storage growth is increasing rapidly and the need to transport data into applications is impacting networks.

The switch will enable customers to separate IP storage traffic from other data traffic.

"It's about the ability to break off and create something specifically for storage," Denman adds.

Jonathan Siegal, EMC Core Technologies Division vice president of marketing, says IP storage workloads can benefit from a dedicated IP storage network which establishes the same performance, predictability, availability and operational simplicity that has been delivered to fibre channel customers for more than 15 years.

The Connectrix VDX-6740B is a high performance, low latency IP storage switch that provides connectivity for a broad array of EMC high-end and mid-range NAS and iSCSI storage platforms. The new switch redefines agility with superior automation and simplicity, achieved through zero-touch, self-forming fabrics.

Denman says from a New Zealand standpoint, there are big market opportunities including in the government and enterprise space. Data analytics, VDI and hybrid cloud are 'huge' areas of interest he adds.

Denman says the offering provides EMC channel partners a further opportunity to talk to their customers.

"And if they're a storage or compute person, it opens up the networking side, and if they're a networking partner it works vice versa.

"Traditionally, they've been quite separate in skill sets," Denman says. He adds that training will be provide for channel partners.

Phil Coates, Brocade ANZ systems engineering manager, says the announcement is 'very important' for Brocade, providing validation for the vendor's ethernet fabric technology.

The offering leverages existing technology, rather than requiring a rip and replace, Coates notes, making it a potentially even more attractive offering for customers.