Brocade, a fabric networking solutions provider has integrated its Gen 5 Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) solutions with the new EMC ViPR Software-Defined Storage Platform.
This approach is likely to help eliminate data center cost and complexity by improving policy-based automation of EMC and non-EMC storage infrastructures, creating a modern storage architecture for future application deployments.
This solution will allow more than 50,000 joint EMC and Brocade customers to immediately realize the virtualization benefits of the new EMC ViPR software-defined storage platform within highly virtualized cloud environments.
“We are really excited to collaborate with EMC to enable all fibre channel storage connected to Brocade switches and directors to be part of this revolutionary approach to storage automation and management,” said Jason Nolet, Vice President of Data Center Networking at Brocade. “With ViPR, Brocade FC SAN customers can transform existing heterogeneous physical storage into a simple, extensible and open virtual storage platform, a significant step towards the software-defined data center.”
Teams from Brocade and EMC have completed the integration of Brocade Network Advisor SAN management software into ViPR using the industry-standard Storage Management Initiative (SMI) interface. This integration enables customers with both third-party and EMC storage arrays — including the EMC VMAX, VPLEX, VNX, Atmos, and Isilon families — to take advantage of Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN solutions enhanced with Brocade Fabric Vision technology as they transform to a software-defined storage architecture with EMC ViPR. Brocade Network Advisor is sold by EMC as Connectrix Manager Converged Network Edition (CMCNE).
“As a crucial component of today’s storage infrastructure we are very excited with the work we have done with Brocade to ensure seamless integration of the networking stack with ViPR,” said Christopher Ratcliffe, Vice President of Marketing, Advanced Software Division, EMC Corporation. “The ability to automate and define policy across the entire storage environment extends our common vision to deliver proven, simple-to-use solutions for storage networks and private clouds with unparalleled ability to transform enterprise data centers. We look forward to continuing our long term strategic relationship to further improve the utilization of our customers’ existing and future storage investments.”