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Brocade Expands Data Centre Networking Solutions to Accelerate Digital Transformation
Brocade released an expanded Brocade SLX family with new innovative switches that feature unparalleled network visibility and the addition of Brocade Workflow Composer Automation Suites for turnkey automation. This is the industry’s first data centre networking portfolio to deliver agility at all layers of the data centre stack, while being open to offer customers with choice. With Brocade, organisations can build networks that enable them to instantly adapt to technology transitions, deliver new services at cloud speed and accelerate digital transformation.
Building on the Brocade SLX 9850 routing solution that Brocade announced last September, the new Brocade SLX 9140, SLX 9240, and SLX 9540 data centre switches deliver flexible leaf, spine and edge connectivity while leveraging the Brocade SLX Insight Architecture. By embedding network visibility on every router and switch, organisations can achieve pervasive visibility throughout the network to instantly identify problems, speed up mean-time-to-remediation and enhance overall service levels. The Brocade SLX 9140 and 9240 extend these capabilities with a programmable ASIC that gives Visibility Services from the physical wire to virtual networks and workloads.
New automation suites, including Network Essentials, Data Center Fabrics and Internet Exchange Points for the Brocade Workflow Composer platform, powered by StackStorm, offer automated network provisioning, validation, troubleshooting and remediation workflows. These automation suites are perfect for customers who want to jumpstart their automation journey with pre-built workflows to speed up time-to-value. Released earlier this year, Brocade Workflow Composer is a server-based, DevOps-style network automation platform that integrates across IT domains for end-to-end workflow automation.
According to IDC, two-thirds of CEOs at Global 2000 organisations will place digital transformation at the center of their corporate strategies by the end of 2017. CEOs recognise they must become a digital organisation to accelerate the pace of innovation and drive competitive advantage or risk being displaced by more nimble competitors. Fast innovation can only happen with an agile IT foundation where automation works impeccably with network visibility while digitally connecting all IT domains and functions together to get rid of silos and deliver end-to-end automation.
CK Lam, Brocade’s Director, Data Centre Fabric and Virtualisation for Asia Pacific said, “Organisations that are going through digital transformation need networks that are extremely agile, extensively automated and highly visible. Brocade is delivering the breadth and depth of flexibility and agility that sets us apart from other network providers. We do so vertically across the data centre stack, and horizontally across domains within the data centre—while being open at every layer.”
Brocade SLX Family Advancements
· The new Brocade SLX 9140 leaf switch offers native 48x25 GbE server-facing ports and 6x100 GbE ports in a 1U fixed form factor. It also features flexible 1/10/25/40/100 GbE configuration options.
· The new Brocade SLX 9240 spine switch delivers high density 32x100 GbE ports in a 1U fixed form factor.
· Both the Brocade SLX 9140 and SLX 9240 switches feature the first programmable ASIC in their class of switch enabling Brocade to rapidly deliver new capabilities via software. This removes expensive forklift upgrades for customers when new technologies and protocols are commenced into the environment. The ASIC builds on the Brocade SLX Insight Architecture, an open kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) environment to run third-party and customer-specific monitoring, troubleshooting and analytics applications, by adding Visibility Services to give insight into virtual networks and workloads. Actions can be taken within the switch or through applications and tools outside of the switch, such as Splunk or Brocade Workflow Composer.
· The Brocade SLX 9540 switch delivers carrier-class features in a cost-effective 1 RU fixed form factor optimised for data centre interconnect, WAN edge and Internet exchange point deployments. It offers 48x10 GbE ports and 6x100 GbE ports.
Brocade Workflow Composer Automation Suites
Created to operate with the Brocade Workflow Composer platform, Brocade automation suites are made for IT organisations looking to embrace automation but have inadequate automation development skills and resources. The suites offer out-of-box network lifecycle automation for commonly performed tasks and are packaged to address major use cases. Each automation suite includes documentation and a collection of turnkey, yet customisable workflows, services, sensors, actions, and rules. Customers can use Brocade automation suites as is or as starter kits for building or customising workflows specific to their data centre requirements to lower time-to-value.
Brad Casemore, Research Director, Datacenter Networks, IDC mentioned, “Enterprises want to build datacenter networks that emulate those of the web-scale giants, but they frequently lack the in-house expertise and resources required to implement such networks and to operate them effectively. As such, they turn to trusted vendors as key partners that can provide them with technologies that are easy to consume, deploy, and manage. Brocade’s approach to embedding visibility into their switches, combined with enhanced automation and programmability, can help organizations transform their networks to align with their digital-transformation initiatives.”
Luke Norris, CEO at Faction also said, “Brocade’s new data center product portfolio will give us enhanced network visibility from our infrastructure to applications and provide the agility we need to support our customers’ evolving expectations in our dynamic environment.”
Availability
The Brocade SLX 9140 and SLX 9240 will be orderable in January 2017. The Brocade SLX 9540 is orderable today. All switches are set to be generally available in April 2017. Brocade Workflow Composer is generally available today. The new automation suites will be available for preview in December 2016 with general availability planned for February 2017.