Brocade Unveils the Brocade DCX Backbone for Evolving Data Center Networks

Provides Unprecedented Levels of Performance, Scalability, and Efficiency for Data Centers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 22 -- Brocade(R) (NASDAQ:BRCD) , the leading provider of data center networking solutions that help enterprises connect and manage their information, today introduced the Brocade DCX(TM) Backbone, the first in a new class of high-performance data center networking products designed to address the demanding requirements of the evolving data center.

Built on four generations of proven data center technology and designed to integrate seamlessly with existing Brocade products -- including existing McDATA solutions -- the Brocade DCX provides industry breakthroughs in terms of performance, scalability, and efficiency. As a result, customers can use the Brocade DCX to build data center fabrics that enable extremely high levels of consolidation and cost savings along with lower deployment and operational risk.

"The virtual server phenomenon has been awesome to watch. Massive consolidation, efficiency improvements and fluidity are all now possible -- assuming that the rest of the infrastructure can support it," said Enterprise Strategy Group Founder and Senior Analyst Steve Duplessie. "The Brocade DCX Backbone has the same value proposition, and actually should make production virtualization deployments happen more rapidly by taking away many of the performance and scalability concerns that server virtualization may present downstream. Bandwidth, density, power consumption and scale can really matter when you are collapsing thousands of physical servers down to hundreds."

The Brocade DCX plays a key role in delivering on the Brocade Data Center Fabric (DCF) architecture announced in October 2007. The Brocade DCF is an architectural framework that allows customers to evolve their data center infrastructures for maximum performance, flexibility, and investment protection, while enabling important industry trends such as server virtualization and the greening of the data center.

"SunGard is looking forward to upgrading both the mainframe FICON and the Open Systems Fibre Channel environments with Brocade DCX Backbone technology," said Tom Tucker, Storage Product Director for SunGard. "It will offer higher performance to our customers, and allow SunGard to consolidate individual directors and switches into this high port count Backbone product for ease of management in our constantly changing environment."

"We have used Brocade technology for many years at the heart of our data center," said Bertram Schon, Chief Technology Officer at Lufthansa Systems. "As we evolve our data center fabric architecture to meet the growing needs of our users, the DCX Backbone provides native interoperability and the lowest-risk way to evolve our architecture for new levels of performance and capabilities for many years to come."

"The demand for applications and data in our business continues to grow, and our infrastructure must grow seamlessly and non-disruptively," said Germar Braam, Lead Architect of KPN. "To meet these needs, we chose to evolve our data center fabric architecture with the 8 Gbit/sec Brocade DCX Backbone."

"We are excited to get the 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel Brocade DCX Backbone installed in the EDEKA data center in Hamburg," said Rainer Zander, head of the EDEKA Data Center in Hamburg. "The Brocade DCX enables seamless integration with our existing infrastructure, sustaining our future growth in storage and performance as part of a global data center fabric architecture."

The new Brocade DCX platform brings many new and enhanced capabilities to customers to drive higher levels of consolidation, cost savings, and data center efficiencies:

The Brocade DCX Offers the Highest Levels of Performance and Scalability: To facilitate broad expansion and greater mobility of virtualized servers and networked storage, the Brocade DCX provides the industry's highest performance, joining the Brocade 48000 Director as the industry's first solutions with 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel capabilities. With up to 896 ports of 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel, the Brocade DCX provides more than five times the switching bandwidth of existing SAN directors and supports eight times as many virtual servers.

The Brocade DCX Utilizes Innovative Adaptive Networking Services to Better Enable Server Virtualization: The Brocade Adaptive Networking services features included in the Brocade DCX enable the fabric to dynamically allocate shared resources as changes occur in the requirements of virtual servers and networked storage. If congestion occurs (or is predicted), the fabric can automatically adjust bandwidth and other resources according to defined service levels -- helping to ensure that higher-priority workloads dynamically receive the resources they need.

The Brocade DCX Offers the Highest Levels of Interoperability and Flexibility: Designed for investment protection and extension, the Brocade DCX is fully interoperable with Brocade and existing McDATA SANs, complementing the Brocade family of data center infrastructure products -- including the Brocade M6140, Brocade Mi10K, and Brocade 48000 directors; Brocade 200E, Brocade 4900, and Brocade 5000 switches; and Brocade SAN extension solutions. Moreover, the Brocade DCX provides comprehensive and flexible deployment options, including the capability to support Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Data Center Ethernet (DCE), Gigabit Ethernet, and iSCSI protocols.

The Brocade DCX Simplifies Data Center Management: The Brocade DCX supports advanced fabric applications for data migration, continuous replication, and data encryption, enabling customers to better protect and secure their corporate data. The new platform is also supported by a broad range of network management tools, including offerings from Brocade and its OEM Partners.

The Brocade DCX Continues Brocade's Leadership in Energy Efficiency: Reducing energy consumption and accommodating data growth are critical requirements in today's IT strategies. The Brocade DCX is 10 times more power-efficient per unit of bandwidth than competitive offerings, allowing customers to better manage data center energy requirements and operational costs.

"The Brocade DCX Backbone sets a new standard for data center networks," said Ian Whiting, Vice President and General Manager for the Brocade Data Center Infrastructure Division. "Through massive consolidation of SANs, virtual server networks and Data Center Ethernet networks, the Brocade DCX Backbone will enable customers to drive significant costs out of their data center operations while ensuring the performance, scalability, and five-nines availability required for current and future applications."

The Brocade DCX is available today from Brocade and is supported by a broad portfolio of Brocade professional and support services. The new platform is also immediately available from Sun Microsystems, and is expected to be available from all Brocade OEM Partners during the first half of 2008.

About Brocade

Brocade is a leading provider of data center networking solutions that help organizations connect, share, and manage their information in the most efficient manner. Organizations that use Brocade products and services are better able to optimize their IT infrastructures and ensure compliant data management. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at http://www.brocade.com/ or contact the company at info at brocade.com.

Brocade OEM Partner/Reseller Quotes

EMC - "Our customers continue to deploy both server and storage virtualization at an ever-growing pace as a way of simplifying their environments and to improve utilization," said Barbara Robidoux, Vice President, EMC Storage Product Marketing. "We expect that the Brocade DCX Backbone will further help to optimize the connection of virtual servers to networked storage. Its ability to facilitate a single data center fabric, managed by a common framework, will be seen as a key asset by customers."

HP - "HP continues to provide customers with data center solutions that combine availability, massive scalability, and unparalleled performance for the most demanding storage environments, so the Brocade DCX Backbone aligns perfectly with our SAN connectivity solutions," said Rick Steffens, Vice President, StorageWorks Division, HP.

Hitachi Data Systems - "As virtualization continues to grow as an integral part of the data center and applications are dynamically provisioned or quickly moved from one machine to another, data center managers must ensure that their infrastructures can support these kinds of performance demands," said Steve TenBarge, Vice President, Global Product Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems. "The scalability of the Brocade DCX Backbone, when combined with the performance provided by Hitachi platforms, such as the flagship Universal Storage Platform V, will result in one of the highest-performing storage solutions attainable in the market today."

NetApp - "With the demands that virtual servers are putting on data center infrastructure, we see real value in the innovative connectivity options of the Brocade DCX Backbone to support both current and emerging protocols, whether Fibre Channel or IP," said Jay Kidd, Chief Marketing Officer, NetApp. "Our customers continue to demand solutions that will help them in the process of unifying and transforming their data centers. The Brocade DCX, alongside NetApp unified storage solutions, helps do just that and will be a welcome addition for customers looking to consolidate end-to-end data center management, from servers to storage."

Sun - "Brocade's DCX Backbone can be easily integrated into customers' existing infrastructures," said David Kenyon, Vice President Storage Marketing, Sun Microsystems. "Our customers will be able to fully utilize their existing assets alongside the Brocade DCX, providing them with full investment protection for their data center infrastructures. The performance, scalability, and interoperability with all types of SAN environments will allow for reduced management costs and TCO."

Changhong Zarva - "We have collaborated with Brocade to design solutions to meet the incredible consolidation demands or our customers," said Chengwei Zhong, Vice President, Changhong Zarva, a Chinese distributor. "The Brocade DCX Backbone provides the scale and performance to serve as the core of an architecture built for the most demanding applications, both today and for years to come."

Application Provider Quotes

Oracle - "Oracle's portfolio of world class products and services including Oracle Applications, Oracle Database, Oracle VM and Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support, together with Brocade's DCX Backbone offer customers the enterprise software and infrastructure for building cost-effective, high performance and scalable solutions for a new generation of data centers," said Monica Kumar, Senior Director Linux and Open Source Product Marketing. "By adding the Brocade DCX Backbone to the Oracle Validated Configurations testing program, we look forward to delivering best practices for deployment of this enterprise-class infrastructure while driving down costs for our customers."

Virtual Iron - "There is tremendous benefit for enterprises implementing the Brocade DCX in combination with Virtual Iron solutions in their data center fabrics," said Virtual Iron CEO Ed Walsh. "The Brocade DCX Backbone's high performance and ability to dynamically adjust bandwidth and priority for applications on the data center fabric allows Virtual Iron customers to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of managing and operating their enterprise data centers with server virtualization." Our clients find the combination of Virtual Iron's 'Enterprise Server Virtualization Made Easy' and Brocade's DCX Backbone a winning combination."

Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.