Brocade Delivers Application Intelligence to Enable Elastic Computing in Virtualized Data Centers

Online, April 29, 2010 (Newswire.com) - DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - April 29, 2010 - Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD) today announced several enhancements to the Brocade ServerIron ADX Series of Application Delivery Controllers to help organizations realize the promise of on-demand, elastic data center computing.

First, Brocade announced the new Brocade Application Resource Broker software module that provides visibility into application performance across the network and virtual machine (VM) infrastructures and helps ensure application service level agreements (SLA) are met by dynamically allocating additional resources to service increases in application load.

Second, Brocade unveiled the new Brocade ServerIron ADX 1008-1 model, which adds an entry-level platform to the ServerIron ADX 1000 Series. The Brocade ServerIron ADX 1000 Series features software-enabled capacity on-demand that allows organizations to double or quadruple device performance without hardware upgrades. Together, these innovations enable a more agile application infrastructure, promoting increased business responsiveness, and optimized use of costly application infrastructure.

Third, Brocade introduced the ServerIron ADX software release v12.2, which helps enterprises and service providers take advantage of IPv6-to-IPv4 gateway functionality for application delivery to IPv6 clients, Layer 7 switching and application delivery services for the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol, and predictive load balancing functionality based on real-time application performance measurements.

"For large organizations requiring dynamic network capacity in their VMware production environments, a solution like the Brocade Application Resource Broker can help network administrators automate the usage of virtual IT application resources," said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, global enterprise and consumer research, Yankee Group. "This functionality helps alleviate administrator intervention and identify real-time application performance to improve the ability to deliver on SLAs and help increase efficiency."

The Brocade Application Resource Broker

The Brocade Application Resource Broker is a new software application that gives administrators increased visibility into application performance in virtualized data centers and private clouds, as well as on-demand provisioning and de-provisioning of application resources based on user demand. It offers a rich set of monitoring, decision-making and application-centric reporting features delivered as a plug-in for the VMware vSphere™ administrative interface.

By leveraging the application performance metrics from the Brocade ServerIron ADX, combined with server and VM-specific load statistics from VMware vCenter™ Server, the Brocade Application Resource Broker determines in real-time if application resources are meeting user demand. Using its policy-based decision engine, the Application Resource Broker can log events and alert administrators to potentially inadequate application resources. Using those same policies, it can automatically provision additional application VM instances and application delivery controller resources to service user demand, and de-provision the VM instances and resources when demand subsides.

Capacity On-Demand for Brocade ADX 1000 Series

To further support the need for on-demand services, Brocade announced capacity on-demand for the Brocade ServerIron ADX 1000 Series, which provides the ability to use simple software-based license keys to double or quadruple performance, enable additional Ethernet interfaces, or activate features such as SSL offload and global server load balancing (GSLB). In addition, Brocade has extended the ServerIron ADX 1000 Series with the introduction of the entry-level Brocade ServerIron ADX 1008-1. Leveraging this new 1U platform and capacity on-demand, customers can now deploy the Brocade ServerIron ADX 1008-1 and upgrade system capacity and feature set as their business grows, without the need for any hardware upgrades.

"According to independent third party testing, the Brocade ServerIron ADX Series of application delivery controllers has established Brocade as a performance leader in the application delivery market," said Mr. Ali Ahmar, Regional Sales Manager Mena, Brocade. "Now, Brocade is enabling application delivery for virtualized data centers and private clouds through innovations in capacity on-demand and the Brocade Application Resource Broker. These new capabilities directly address the customer's need for a more agile and dynamic data center, optimizing network and application resources based on user demand."

Pricing and Availability

The Brocade ServerIron ADX 1008-1 is available today starting at $12,995 USD. The Brocade Application Resource Broker and additional software release capabilities for the Brocade ServerIron ADX Series will be generally available in the second calendar quarter of 2010.

As the growing usage of on-demand applications and cloud computing are driving the need for business partners to focus on the delivery of solutions and services within a virtualized environment, Brocade's application delivery portfolio of products present a unique value proposition for channel partners. All products are available through dedicated Brocade partners.

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About Brocade
Brocade® (Nasdaq: BRCD) develops extraordinary networking solutions that enable today's complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data.

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Brocade, the B-wing symbol, BigIron, DCX, Fabric OS, FastIron, IronView, NetIron, SAN Health, ServerIron, and TurboIron are registered trademarks, and Brocade Assurance, DCFM, Extraordinary Networks, and Brocade NET Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

© 2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ali Ahmar
Regional Sales Manager - MENA
Brocade
GSM: +971 50 1810630

Media Contact:
Colin Saldanha
Procre8
Dubai - UAE
GSM: +971 (50) 6400762