Brocade and Microsoft Collaboration Enables SAN and IP Networking Solutions to Support Private Cloud, Server and Network Virtualisation
Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) today announced support for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Server 2012 server operating system across all product lines, including the company’s Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) and Ethernet fabric solutions. Together with Windows Server 2012, Brocade® networks simplify operations and management for highly virtualised cloud data centers, which serve as the infrastructure for enterprises and service providers in supporting their key data center initiatives such as scale-out server virtualisation, private cloud deployments and software-defined networking (SDN).
To ensure compatibility and enable new networking functionality with Windows Server 2012, Brocade has implemented enhancements across its SAN and Ethernet fabric switching and adapter products that help enable new features such as:
- Virtual Fibre Channel: Simplifies and enables direct access to ultra-reliable, high-performance Fibre Channel SAN storage by multiple-guest virtual machine (VM) partitions in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V environments. This enables distributed workload clustering and dynamic live migration of high-availability applications such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server across VMs without impacting workflows or requiring SAN reconfiguration.
- Dynamic Circuit Network (DCN): Enables Quality of Service (QoS) configuration from a Data Center Bridging (DCB) network. This allows users to initiate ad-hoc dedicated allocation of network bandwidth for high-demand, real-time applications and network services. DCN support has been added to the Brocade adapter family, with DCB enabled in all products.
- Network Virtualisation Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE): As a component of Brocade’s network virtualisation strategy, the company is reaffirming its commitment to provide future support for NVGRE in Brocade Ethernet fabric switches. NVGRE is the Microsoft-recommended virtualisation mechanism for Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Network Virtualisation deployments.
These new capabilities offer enterprise IT and cloud providers new storage and networking options that help ensure non-stop operations, increase business agility and optimise application performance. Brocade also now supports interoperability and integration with Microsoft System Center 2012. By working closely with the System Center team to test and build integrations, organisations can easily manage any Brocade network as part of a complete Windows-based cloud environment.
“Windows Server 2012 was built from the cloud up and introduces innovations such as software-defined networking and NVGRE for network virtualisation and isolation to help enable cloud deployments,” said Mike Schutz, general manager, Windows Server Marketing, Microsoft. “From the early design stages of Windows Server 2012, Microsoft worked closely with Brocade to give customers new networking technologies such as software-defined networking via NVGRE and virtual Fibre Channel for more dynamic connectivity to storage resources.”
Introduced today, Windows Server 2012 is a highly dynamic, available and cost-effective server platform that enables organisations to deploy private or hybrid clouds in a flexible IT environment that adapts to changing business needs. New and enhanced features provide high performance and scalability to enable a truly multitenant infrastructure where networking, compute, and storage resources are completely isolated between tenants on the same host. For hosting providers, Windows Server 2012 includes the ability to isolate tenants, gain insight into infrastructure resource usage, and provide new services to help create additional revenue streams. It also offers tools to help customers make the transition from on-premises to hosted environments, while continuing to provide the services and reliability demanded by enterprise, mid-market, and small businesses.
“To support next-generation cloud environments, many new networking technologies require support in the operating system to help organisations realise the full benefit of highly virtualised IT architectures,” said Graham Schultz, Regional Director Australia and New Zealand, at Brocade. “By working closely with the Microsoft engineering team in the early stages of the new OS’s development, we have ensured that Brocade Ethernet and Fibre Channel fabric solutions work seamlessly with Windows Server 2012 as well as deliver innovative new networking functionality for highly virtualised, cloud-based data centers.”
More Information
Video: Brocade Vice President Jason Nolet, Data Center and Enterprise Networking discusses Brocade’s collaboration with Microsoft to help ensure the OS and network together can deliver important new networking functionality in the virtualised cloud-based data center.
Video: Mike Schutz, GM, Windows Server Marketing, explains why Microsoft chose to work with Brocade as a development partner for Windows Server 2012, including work in the areas of SDN and virtual fibre channel.
About Brocade
Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) networking solutions help the world’s leading organisations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)
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