Brocade Showcases Unified Management and End-to-End Data Center Virtualization Solutions at VMworld Europe 2009

Brocade^® (Nasdaq:BRCD) today announced that it will be participating at VMworld Europe 2009 with a host of virtualization-related topics and technology innovations, including a Brocade customer speaking session on virtualization best practices, a preview demonstration of unified management capabilities for next-generation data centers and a reference architecture paper demonstrating the ease and scalability of mixed virtual workloads running on Brocade storage area networks (SANs).

Speaker Session

Brocade customer KPN, the largest service provider in the Netherlands, and Brocade Network Systems Architect Owen Higginson, will jointly present on the best practices of connecting virtualized Microsoft Exchange applications and VMware ESX Server 3.5 over a Brocade SAN. During the session, they will share the results of a proof-of-concept where 1,000 to 5,000 Microsoft Exchange mailboxes run in a virtualized VMware infrastructure. Participants will learn how the joint solution provides the same degree of reliability as non-virtualized platforms, while reducing overall deployment complexity and cost as well as addressing SMB and enterprise end-user requirements of using bladed servers and SAN-attached storage.

"This project illustrates how running Exchange in a virtualized environment dramatically simplifies infrastructure management when compared to a non-virtualized model,” commented Herman Keijzer, Architect N&S, Innovative, TV & Internet Services at KPN. "Not only does the virtualized environment reduce complexity, it significantly reduces total cost of ownership. The project has, without a doubt, proven that organizations can regain control over storage assets by deploying virtualized environments.”

Unified Data Center Management

Further showcasing virtualization innovations, Brocade will host a live in-booth preview of the Brocade Management Plugin for managing VMware virtualized environments. This demonstration will showcase the potential of a new level of unified management that offers expanded visibility and automated management of a virtualized infrastructure beyond the confines of server networks and into shared storage. By leveraging the extension of advanced fabric services via technologies embedded in its switches and Brocade host bus adapters (HBAs), the Brocade manageability solutions will show unified management of the next-generation virtualized data center by providing the necessary integration with storage, server, and data center management frameworks.

New Reference Architecture

Finally, Brocade will unveil a reference architecture paper that will help system administrators better design and implement VMware ESX 3.5 virtual servers on high-performance Brocade Fibre Channel SANs. This reference architecture can be used as a "toolkit” by providing additional tuning and setup guides for administrators installing VMware for the first time or optimizing an existing VMware environment. The paper will include details such as optimizing and designing a Fibre Channel SAN in a mixed workload environment, multivendor server and array connectivity and layout considerations, Boot from SAN, N-Port Virtualization, Quality of Service, backup best practices, and other aspects of configuring a virtual infrastructure. Brocade jointly developed the architecture with InfoTouch, an IT consulting firm.

"This reference architecture paper demonstrates the ease of installation and increased scalability of a Brocade Fibre Channel SAN for a VMware environment,” said Dr. Wolfgang Weith from InfoTouch. "Setting up the physical infrastructure right from the beginning is of the utmost importance so organizations can easily scale their VMware environment to meet future business requirements.”

"VMware and Brocade continue to work closely together to develop solutions that enable organizations to deploy more applications on a simplified infrastructure,” said Shekar Ayyar, vice president of infrastructure alliances at VMware. "By deploying a scalable Brocade Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure, VMware and Brocade customers can reliably and efficiently connect virtualized server, network and storage solutions. Customers can leverage virtualized server and storage mobility using application-specific Quality of Service with simplified management from trusted industry leaders to improve return on investment and reduce power and cooling costs.”

Brocade Global Professional Services

Brocade Data Center Virtualization services help customers optimize application and fabric performance, improve data protection, and unify management across the data center. These services are designed to address the needs of IT professionals who want to transform their existing data centers into consolidated, dynamic, next-generation infrastructures that incorporate advanced virtualization capabilities offered by companies such as VMware.

VMworld Europe 2009 will take place on 24-26 February at the The Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France. Brocade is a Silver Sponsor and will be exhibiting at booth 156.

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. For more information, visit www.brocade.com.

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