The Brocade 7500 combines industry-leading Fibre Channel switching and routing capabilities with powerful hardware-assisted traffic forwarding for Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP). The switch features sixteen 4 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel ports and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports - delivering high performance to run storage applications at line-rate speed with either protocol.

By integrating these services in a single platform, the Brocade 7500 offers a wide range of benefits for local and remote storage and SAN connectivity, including SAN scaling, long-distance extension, greater resource sharing, and simplified management.

With support for Fast Write, Tape Pipelining, and the industry-unique Brocade Accelerator for FICON, the Brocade 7500 provides the industry's most robust solution for Fibre Channel and FICON SAN extension over IP WANs. These capabilities - in conjunction with Brocade Storage-Optimized TCP, hardware-based compression, IPSec encryption, and Adaptive Networking Services - deliver a high-performance, highly reliable, and secure distance-connectivity solution for strategic initiatives such as business continuance, site mirroring, replication, and data migration across virtually unlimited distances.

For a bladed architecture for SAN extension, switching, and routing services, refer to the Brocade FR4-18i SAN Extension Blade used in the Brocade 48000 Director and Brocade DCX Backbone.

• Provides an enterprise building block for consolidation, data mobility, and business continuity solutions that improve efficiency and cost savings
• Combines FCIP extension with Fibre Channel switching and routing to provide local and remote storage and SAN connectivity while isolating SAN fabrics and IP WAN networks
• Optimizes application performance for Fibre Channel- and FCIP-based SAN extension across distance with features such as Fast Write, the industry-unique Brocade Accelerator for FICON (including Emulation and Read/Write Tape Pipelining), and hardware-based compression
• Maximizes bandwidth utilization with Adaptive Networking Services, including QoS and traffic isolation, trunking, and network load balancing
• Enables secure connections across IP WANs through IPSec encryption
• Interoperates with Brocade switches, routers, and the Brocade DCX Backbone, enabling new levels of SAN scalability, performance, and investment protection
• Simplifies interconnection and support for heterogeneous SAN environments

The Brocade Virtual Tape Library (VTL) solution increases data backup flexibility by providing efficient disk-to-disk-to-tape backup over distance. When used with the Brocade 7500, this virtualized solution provides a cost-effective way to reduce backup windows, improve backup over the WAN, and enhance disaster recovery.