ENGINEERING

• Goal to Include Joint Innovation on Management, Virtualization Infrastructure and Optimization for Next-Generation Data Centers

Brocade and Dell have announced a partnership to offer Dell customers end-to-end computing, networking and storage solutions through the Dell global sales organization. The two companies also intend to collaborate on future development around the management and virtualization of next-generation, efficient data centers, which will help Brocade and Dell customers better utilize IT and gain significant savings in people, time and money.

Specifically, the two companies intend to:

• Develop a dynamic infrastructure and optimization solution enabled by virtualization to allow customers to deploy and manage an efficient data center. Increasingly, customers need applications deployed rapidly to meet their performance requirements, with secure and reliable access to their mission-critical data.
• Deliver integrated toolsets to manage application delivery and deployment as business services on highly reliable compute, network and storage infrastructure. The Brocade and Dell solution will help provide capital and operational expense savings by deploying server and storage virtualization more broadly across the data center.

This expanded partnership extends Dell’s existing Brocade storage networking solutions to provide a comprehensive portfolio of Dell-branded Fibre Channel (FC) host bus adapters and converged network adapters, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) switches and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) switching products, including:

• The Brocade Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) to provide unified, end-to-end management of data center fabrics – from storage ports on networked storage systems to HBAs attached to physical or virtualized servers.
• Dell switching solutions based on Brocade 8000 FCoE Switch and Brocade DCX Backbone to enable data center consolidation and network convergence and help address the data growth and application demands of evolving enterprise data centers;
• Dell server connectivity solutions based on Brocade 815/825 Fibre Channel HBAs and Brocade 1010/1020 Converged Network Adapters, to help customers deploy an end-to-end storage networking architecture from the server to storage; 
• Dell Ethernet modular switching solutions based on the Brocade NetIron MLX Series Routers and Brocade BigIron RX Series Switches to provide state-of-the art 10 GbE and 1 GbE port density and wire-speed performance designed to support data center traffic including iSCSI virtualized applications and Internet edge-to-aggregation layers routing;
• Dell application switching based on the Brocade ServerIron ADX Series Switches to provide state-of-the-art Layer 4 through 7 switching performance in an intelligent, modular application delivery controller platform. The ADX is designed to enable highly secure and scalable service infrastructures to help applications run more efficiently and with higher availability.

These new Dell-branded products complement the Brocade networking portfolio that Dell currently resells. These include Fibre Channel blade switches for the Dell M1000e and Dell PowerEdge blade servers as well as a comprehensive line of Brocade fixed-configuration Fibre Channel switches as part of its SAN switch offerings.

"We are extending our Brocade relationship beyond storage into the broader data center, offering customers compelling choices and flexibility for compute, networking and storage. Both companies share a vision that next-generation, virtualized data centers should be open and standards-based," said Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Dell Enterprise Product Group.

"Brocade is committed to an ecosystem-centric partnership model in developing and delivering the best-in-class solutions that customers need and want. This agreement further strengthens and diversifies Dell’s end-to-end IP and storage networking portfolio and provides customers with a cost-effective, high-performance, and reliable choice to address the demands of evolving enterprise data centers." said Marc Randall, senior vice president, Brocade Products and Offerings.

Availability

Dell expects to make the new Brocade products generally available to customers starting in late 2009.