Brocade Expands The Effortless Network Strategy with New Campus LAN Innovations

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 08th  April, 2015 -  Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) today announced new innovations to its campus Local Area Network (LAN) switch family to help organizations realize the vision of The Effortless Network® and build the foundation for the New IP.

The new Brocade® ICX® 7250 switch delivers the industry’s highest 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) port density for any switch in its class to address the onslaught of user video and wireless traffic that is taxing campus networks.

Brocade also unveiled Switch Port Extender, a new HyperEdge® Architecture technology, designed to simplify network deployment and ongoing maintenance. Through added automation, this technology enables shared network services and management between Brocade ICX 7250, 7450, and 7750 switches distributed across the campus.

A leader in software defined networking (SDN), Brocade also extended OpenFlow 1.3 support to Brocade ICX 7450 and 7750 switches to enable SDN solutions in LAN architectures. Combined with the Brocade Vyatta® Controller, these switches give customers a way to begin realizing the possibilities of SDN automation.

“Today’s organizations require a high-performance, scalable campus LAN infrastructure to address the proliferation of mobile devices, rich media, and insatiable user expectations,” said Jason Nolet, senior vice president of the Switching, Routing, and Analytics Products Group at Brocade. “In addition, customers are seeking networking solutions that will help to increase IT agility and lower operating expenses through automation and management consolidation.”

Campus networks at hospitals, for example, are evolving rapidly to integrate new clinical and emergency room applications, while supporting more mobile doctor-patient devices than ever before. As a result, these hospitals need a network that is adaptable and flexible.

“The Brocade ICX 7750 and 7450 network switches help us better support one million patient visits each year,” said Dan Brewer, senior manager for IT, CoxHealth in Springfield, MO. “We’re looking forward to the new Brocade ICX 7250 switch to provide access for other clinical applications, extend our connectivity options, and continue to run the region’s most efficient patient-first healthcare campus network.”

Brocade directly addresses these issues with its new campus switches and SDN enhancements. The complete family of hardware and software solutions is designed for flexible scalability, simplified management, and open standards-based interoperability in multivendor best-in-class networks.

Product and Technology Details
•The Brocade ICX 7250 delivers 50 percent greater stacking density than comparable switches, consolidating up to 576 1 GbE ports into a virtual chassis and single management touchpoint. To ensure easily scalable network services as user applications evolve, full Layer 3 services are available for the Brocade ICX 7250 to reduce CapEx and protect existing investments.
•The centrally managed Switch Port Extender will enable the Brocade ICX 7250 and 7450 switches to inherit advanced Brocade ICX 7750 features and capabilities, simplifying management to greatly reduce OpEx.
•OpenFlow 1.3 is universally supported in Brocade ICX switches whether they are deployed individually, in mixed stacks, or in distributed stacks—offering SDN implementation flexibility across wiring closets.
•The Brocade ICX switch family is certified with the OpenDaylight-based Brocade Vyatta Controller and will support other OpenDaylight-compliant controllers.

Supporting Quotes

“As a Brocade APN Elite Partner, we’ve had a lot of success delivering solutions with Brocade’s HyperEdge Architecture Mixed Stacking technology to simplify, automate, and future-proof our customer campus networks. We are very excited about the new Switch Port Extender technology as it will allow us to continue delivering automation with even more powerful and scalable Brocade ICX network solutions for our customers.” – John O’Shea, President, Vology, Inc.

“A recent IDC survey of enterprise networking professionals showed that network provisioning and operational agility was the most cited primary motivation for either considering or implementing SDN solutions in both the datacenter and the campus. Brocade's end-to-end delivery of software networking stack elements including OpenFlow 1.3 Hybrid Port Mode support on its ICX campus LAN portfolio demonstrates the growing traction of SDN across the network." – Nolan Greene, research analyst, Network Infrastructure, IDC.

Pricing and Availability
•General availability for the Brocade ICX 7250 begins this month with a list price starting at $2,000.
•The initial release of Switch Port Extender is planned for late 2015 and will support Brocade ICX 7750 and 7450 mixed domains. Future releases will include support for all Brocade ICX 7250, 7450, and 7750 switches.
•The Brocade ICX 7450 and 7750 OpenFlow 1.3 implementations are available this month and will support standalone mode initially, with full stacking support to follow in a future software release.