Brocade Unifies the Data Center

The Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches are a series of Layer 2 switches that eliminate the need to rely on the Spanning Tree Protocol to integrate systems across the data center.

According to Erik Pounds, director of product management for the Brocade VDX series, while other vendors have attempted to drive data center convergence around proprietary architectures, the Brocade switches are the first to allow diverse servers, storage and networking assets to be managed as part of a common Ethernet fabric.

By adding more intelligence at the Layer 2 level in keeping with the emerging Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) standard, Pounds says that data center switches can now keep track of virtual machines and their application workloads as they move across the data center. This means that IT organizations can manage application workloads by their profiles on the network, while dynamically reconfigure ports on the network to meet their requirements.

The Brocade VDX series switches are available in 16 to 60 ports configurations and provide 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) performance from any port to any port, with latency of 600 nanoseconds (ns), Pound said.

Pricing for the VDX series starts at $10,700.