BROCADE extends Gen 6 fibre channel portfolio with virtual machine visibility for storage networks

Brocade has announced the BROCADE G610, a no-compromise storage switch for always-on connectivity to the all-flash data center. This breakthrough switch leverages the power of BROCADE GEN 6 Fibre channel technology, providing up to 32 Gbps performance, unmatched simplicity and enterprise-class functionality that helps organizations adapt to dynamic workloads and new demands for always-on business operations.

Brocade also announced expanded monitoring capabilities through Brocade Fabric Vision technology with the availability of VM Insight. VM Insight delivers proactive visibility into the health and performance of individual virtual machines (VMs) to help administrators uncover issues before applications are affected.

Digital transformation, the rapid adoption of flash storage and the emergence of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) are driving new requirements for a modern infrastructure that can optimize application performance and adapt to evolving data center needs. To meet those needs, Gen 6 Fibre Channel SAN solutions are designed to provide digital enterprises with superior performance, non-stop availability and built-in NVMe capabilities for all-flash data centers.

"The Brocade G610 switch and VM Insight reinforce Brocade's continued commitment to Fibre Channel innovation to help customers derive more value from their applications and infrastructure," said Jack Rondoni, senior vice president of storage networking at Brocade. "Together with our partner ecosystem, Brocade is making it easy and affordable to deploy Fibre Channel solutions while extending monitoring capabilities in Fabric Vision technology so customers can have unparalleled visibility of VM-level application performance within the storage network."

The Brocade G610 is an entry-level switch designed for a variety of environments ranging from small shared storage fabrics to network edge deployments in data centers. It offers high performance, proven reliability and affordable access to industry-leading Gen 6 Fibre Channel storage networking technology. To support their ever-evolving storage environments, organizations can start with eight ports and grow on demand with up to 24 ports per switch. In addition, the Brocade G610 switch is easy to use and install, with a point-and-click user interface that simplifies deployment to save time.

"The use of all-flash arrays for consolidation of mission-critical primary storage workloads is increasing rapidly, and by 2020 IDC predicts that these types of systems will drive over 80 percent of all primary storage revenues," said Eric Burgener, research director, storage, IDC. "Flash's ability to support much denser workload consolidation is demanding higher-performance host connections, and Brocade's new Gen 6 Fibre Channel portfolio provides that bandwidth with a proven, trusted and highly secure protocol."

"Whole-brain imaging is critical to our research but advances in imaging and microscopy place new demands on our network and storage infrastructure every day," said Jake Carroll, senior information technology manager of research, The University of Queensland's Queensland Brain Institute. "Brocade Gen 6 Fibre Channel solutions massively boost data transfer speeds enabling scientists to maximize the benefits of increased image resolution and high data sampling rates."

The entire Brocade Gen 6 product family with Fabric Vision technology now includes VM Insight to help organizations achieve greater visibility into VM-level application performance. Using integrated sensors, this new capability allows administrators to monitor VM statistics and quickly identify abnormal VM behaviors. This facilitates troubleshooting and fault isolation while providing intelligence for early detection of application performance degradations to help support critical service level agreements. VM Insight extends and complements the automated monitoring, diagnostic and management capabilities enabled by Fabric Vision technology.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is shipping the Brocade G610 switch today. "The ability to protect, analyze and transport data reliably and affordably is an enormous competitive advantage," said Marty Lans, senior director and general manager of Storage Connectivity, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "The combination of HPE 3PAR and Brocade Gen 6 Fibre Channel solutions has the potential to transform businesses of all shapes and sizes, enabling them to derive maximum benefit from investments in technologies like flash, NVMe, cloud and virtualization. The introduction of the new SN3600B Fibre Channel switch bolsters our current Gen 6 Fibre Channel portfolio with a new offering to put Fibre Channel SAN within reach of even more customers."