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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News -
Storage:
Brocade To Deliver Multiprotocol
Fabric Routing For SANs
Brocade Communications Systems Inc, a leading provider of infrastructure
solutions for storage area networks (SANs), announced a unique set of
multiprotocol fabric routing services that extends the functionality,
scalability, and versatility of today's SANs. The services will be delivered
on the Brocade SilkWorm Fabric Application Platform (SilkWorm Fabric AP) and
will allow customers to logically consolidate and scale SANs, and seamlessly
extend SAN functionality and benefits over multiple networks and across
greater distances. The new multiprotocol fabric routing services include:
- Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel (FC-to-FC) routing to consolidate and scale
separate SAN islands into Logical Private SANs (LSANs), which offer the
highest levels of configuration flexibility and system availability with the
lowest risk and complexity for the end user.
- iSCSI-to-FC bridging for attaching low cost, Ethernet-connected hosts to
the Fibre Channel SAN fabric via the iSCSI protocol.
- Fibre Channel to FC-IP translation, in order to extend existing Fibre
Channel SANs over distance via IP networks.
The multiprotocol fabric services will be provided by Brocade XPath
Technology, which uniquely affords customers the unprecedented capability of
configuring SAN protocols flexibly on a port-by-port basis within the SilkWorm
Fabric AP.
"Customers are looking for ways to extend the value of their storage and
SAN
environments without increasing complexity or cost," said Nick Allen, vice
president of Gartner. "As customers consolidate storage and scale their SANs,
the ability to logically segment physical SANs, span multiple network
protocols, and utilize their existing WAN and LAN infrastructure for SAN
distance extension are becoming critical success factors. SAN infrastructure
providers that meet this critical customer requirement are well positioned to
catch the next wave of SAN adoption and evolution."
FC-To-FC Routing Service
FC routing enables Brocade SAN customers to logically connect physically
separate SAN fabrics to enable shared, wire-speed access to storage resources
from any SAN fabric. This capability allows customers to scale and share
resources across their SANs while retaining the administration and fault
isolation benefits of separately managed fabrics.
Using FC routing, Brocade SAN customers can create LSANs that span fabrics
in their existing SAN environment to deliver efficient resource consolidation
and utilization from separate SAN islands with the management, isolation,
security and stability of separately managed SANs.
Customers can gain the benefits of FC routing by simply connecting their
fabrics to one or more SilkWorm Fabric AP products running the fabric routing
services: no configuration changes to the existing fabrics are required.
Customers can share devices by defining "LSAN zones" that include devices on
multiple fabrics and support for LSANs with thousands of devices, eliminating
the single fabric resource constraints and the complexity of merging fabrics.
Storage devices can exist in multiple LSANs simultaneously, creating an
unprecedented level of flexibility and utilization for the customer.
iSCSI-To-FC Bridging Service
iSCSI bridging enables Brocade SAN customers to attach Ethernet-connected
servers that use the iSCSI protocol to Brocade Fibre Channel SANs in a cost-
effective, easy-to-manage way that is seamlessly compatible with their
existing SANs. Customers can extend the proven benefits of their Fibre Channel
SANs to applications residing on lower-cost servers for centralized
management, improved backup and storage consolidation. Key features include
integration of iSCSI-based devices in Fibre Channel SAN zones for security and
support for multiple iSCSI hosts to share a single port, allowing the lowest
possible cost per server connect. The service is configurable at the port
level on the SilkWorm Fabric AP, making it easier for customers to deploy in
existing and planned SAN environments.
SAN Extension Over Distance Via FC-IP
FC-IP support enables Brocade SAN customers to reliably extend SANs over
distance via campus, metro and wide area IP networks for disaster recovery,
remote replication, and data migration. The FC-IP capability of the
multiprotocol fabric routing services enables any port on the SilkWorm Fabric
AP to use the FC-IP protocol as a Fibre Channel bridge across the IP network.
Used in conjunction with FC routing capabilities, the local and remote fabrics
can be separate fabrics with LSANs to enable device connection, or they can be
merged into a single fabric.
In addition, Brocade announced an expanded alliance with CNT in which
Brocade will recommend the CNT Ultranet Edge Gateway as a solution for
extending Brocade Fibre Channel SANs over distance. More than 300 mutual CNT
and Brocade customers have already deployed this solution, which is designed
for mission-critical, highest-performance applications that require metro and
wide area network connection.
"We are pleased to continue to deliver innovative new services that allow
end
user customers to extend the value of their Brocade SANs and further simplify
storage management while protecting their existing investments," said Tom
Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of marketing. "With integrated iSCSI-to-FC
bridging, FC-to-FC routing, and support for FCIP for distance extension on the
SilkWorm Fabric AP, Brocade customers will gain the ability to
cost-effectively grow and scale their SANs, and extend them across multiple
networks and to greater distances."
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