Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD), a specialist in data center fabric networking platforms, recently announced a new extension platform designed to enable 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 company says its new Disaster Recovery (DR) platform also extends its 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.
Brocade notes that 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.
"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 7x24 basis, forcing enterprises to meet their demands for 'always on' application services."
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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.
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.
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.
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.