The modern data center ecosystem is in a period of rapid change, with many vendors and analysts speculating what form it will take in the future. Adding to the complexity, those changes are permeating the entire data center, from applications all the way to the virtual machines, servers, and storage devices.

At the center of this transformation is the network infrastructure. As you define your long-term data center strategy, your networks will play an increasingly critical role. That’s why you need maximum flexibility and choice in order to make the right decisions about your networks.Greater choice will ultimately lead to better solutions, lower costs, and greater business agility—all of which benefit your IT environment and your organization’s bottom line.

Based on a comprehensive family of world-class solutions, Brocade® Extraordinary Networks can help you address your most pressing business requirements today—and extend the value of your technology investments well into the future.

THE NEXT STEP: NETWORK CONVERGENCE
As your data center continues to evolve, it is vital to maintain efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In most cases, this will involve network convergence that includes both Fibre Channel and emerging Ethernet protocols.

In particular, Brocade believes that networks will converge at the data center server edge, utilizing Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) to reduce both cost and complexity. When the time is right for you to adopt these new technologies, Brocade can streamline that process based on its vast expertise in both IP and Fibre Channel networking.

From a technology perspective, Brocade focuses on three key areas:

1. Continuing to innovate with leading-edge IP networking products

2. Continuing to lead the Fibre Channel storage networking market

3. Developing new solutions that enable converged networks

The bottom line is that Brocade believes in giving you the choice to adopt the right technologies on your timeline, not your vendors’ timeline.

A PARTNER ECOSYSTEM MEANS CHOICE

When it comes to building a more unified data center or converging networks, one size definitely does not fit all. The power of choice means being able to select the individual products and vendors that make sense based on your particular needs, budget, and timeframe.

This type of flexibility requires an ecosystem-centric strategy that includes:

• Partnering with the leading companies in the IT sector

• Developing best-in-class solutions

• Investing in interoperability testing to validate those solutions

INTEROPERABILITY AND SIMPLIFIED MANAGEMENT

Another key factor in delivering greater choice is standardization. History has shown that open, standards-based solutions are more robust and cost-effective, whereas proprietary solutions are less adaptable and more expensive.

Brocade takes a leadership role in standards definition and adoption to enable the smooth interoperation of all the components in your data center regardless of vendor. This enables you to make decisions based on the cost, quality, scalability, reliability, and performance characteristics—or any combination thereof—of individual products.

New standards such as FCoE and CEE will also influence how you manage your environment, requiring much tighter coordination between all elements of the data center. Fortunately, orchestration software suites such as those currently offered by Brocade and its partners can coordinate the provisioning and management of these disparate data center elements.

MAXIMIZE YOUR FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

Achieving your business goals requires a partner with industry-leading products, unmatched experience, and the services expertise to provide exactly what you need—no more and no less.

Today, Brocade delivers end-to-end solutions for data center, enterprise campus, and service provider networks—giving you maximum choice in building the best networking infrastructure for your particular requirements.

To learn more, visit www.brocade.com/extraordinary.

THE SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS OF EXTRAORDINARY NETWORKS

• High performance: Providing the highest-performing products at the lowest possible cost point to support the most demanding applications

• Data center-class reliability: Extending proven reliability to the edge and throughout the enterprise to reduce risk, downtime, and cost

• Intelligent innovation: Leveraging innovation as a way to reduce cost and facilitate business transformation with future-proofed solutions

• Energy efficiency: Delivering denser and more energy-efficient products that are up to 10 times more efficient than the competition

• Optimized lifecycle costs: Utilizing unique solutions to reduce costs as part of a long-term strategy for maximizing ROI without inhibiting growth

• Operational simplicity: Simplifying management to free up personnel to focus on more revenue-generating tasks

• Ecosystem-centric: Working with world-class partners to deliver best-in-class solutions built on open industry standards