Brocade Speeds Ahead on Product Roadmap

May 31st, 2007: With data centre efficiencies in mind, Brocade has announced a wide range of product and service enhancements in line with their promised product roadmap.

Tom Buiocchi, Brocade VP of worldwide marketing says the announcements mark a step forward on their product roadmap announced this year. “As enterprise data continues to grow, customers are asking for innovations to drive higher efficiencies, and our announcements today all contribute to that goal,” he says.

The enhancements run across the networked storage vendors’ Storage Area Network (SAN), File Area Network (FAN) and Professional Services offerings. Notable aspects include the new Brocade FC10-6 director blade for interconnecting systems between remote sites, two enterprise-class software applications for increasing the management and security of SAN infrastructure, as well as the Brocade FA4-18 application blade for the 48000 and Brocade 7600 Application Platform.

Off the back of the McDATA acquisition earlier this year, the Brocade Access Gateway enabling interoperability between the classic Brocade and legacy McData switches will extend out the entry-level Brocade 200E Switch.

In the FAN space, Brocade says it will now offer enhanced branch office solutions for file consolidation and data protection, a new release of the Brocade StorageX (version 6.0) as well as a new release of the Brocade File Lifecycle Manager (4.0) assisting file automation and restoration.

According to the Taneja Group, the Brocade announcement is also a step forward for the evolution of the data centre. “Brocade is addressing the needs for scalable and high-performance connectivity, simple yet comprehensive management, and absolute investment protection,” says Brad O’Neill, senior analyst with Taneja Group.

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