Brocade and EMC Unveil IP Storage Switch

Brocade and EMC have extended their longstanding OEM relationship with announcement of new Brocade VCS Ethernet fabric solutions for EMC's Connectrix family of network switches.

Designed for modern IP networks, the new Connectrix VDX-6740B IP storage switch improves performance, resiliency, and agility in mission critical IP storage networks, according to Brocade. The switch will be available for EMC’s Data Domain, Isilon, VMAX, VNX, and XtremIO products.

Resembling the way Fibre Channel works in networking, the idea of an IP storage switch is not new.

The target for the VDX-6740B is a modern, flexible, and open network architecture for dedicated storage networks powering new IP workloads. Brocade notes that the new switch has up to 48 10GbE ports and 4 40GbE ports. To assist with orchestration, multiple systems connect into a self-forming fabric, and are managed as a single switch by Connectrix Manager Converged Network Edition (CMCNE).

Brocade acquired Ethernet networking company Foundry Networks almost seven years ago.

The Connectrix VDX-6740B does add something new, with a patented feature for load-balanced multi-pathing as well as on-chip buffers for extremely high throughput. Resiliency is another item Brocade highlights, saying that the new switch has millisecond link failover, allowing I/O to continue non-disruptively after a path or link failure.

"Today's IP storage workloads can benefit from a dedicated IP storage network which establishes the same performance, predictability, availability and operational simplicity that we have been delivering to our Fibre Channel customers for the past 15-plus years," Jonathan Siegal, vice president of marketing for EMC's Core Technologies Division, said in a statement.