Simplify and Accelerate the Journey to the Cloud
To achieve greater business agility and cost efficiency, IT organizations are transforming the way applications and the supporting infrastructure—compute, storage, and networking—are deployed in the data center. By moving to cloud computing in the enterprise (private clouds) or through service providers (public clouds), organizations can manage their infrastructure resources as services and rapidly allocate them from a common pool to any application, on demand.

The greater scale and mobility of server virtualization are driving flatter, full-bandwidth networks with less complexity. In addition, organizations are seeking to maximize the benefits of cloud computing through more efficient infrastructure procurement, pre-integrated components, faster support response, and greater choice in best-in-class products to meet specific business needs.

Designed to fulfill these objectives through the Brocade partner ecosystem, Brocade Virtual Compute Block solutions leverage breakthrough Ethernet fabrics (based on Brocade VCS^® Fabric technology) and industry-leading Fibre Channel fabrics to simplify and accelerate the transition to private and public cloud computing.

Bundled Solutions from Brocade Partners
As an integral element of the Brocade CloudPlex architecture, Brocade enables partners and systems integrators to deliver Virtual Compute Block solutions composed of compute, storage, networking, and systems management offerings in bundled configurations.

Customized for different types of environments, application needs, and price/performance requirements, these solutions include:

• Blade or rack servers with varying CPU and memory quantities to support a wide range of virtual machine-hosted applications
• Choice of hypervisor—such as VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V, XEN, and KVM—to optimize virtualization capabilities and costs as needs grow
• iSCSI, NAS, Fibre Channel, or FCoE storage with optional storage capacities to address varying application requirements
• Brocade Ethernet fabrics and/or Fibre Channel fabrics, adapters, and licensing options

Available from Brocade partners, these pretested, preracked solutions streamline the procurement of cloud infrastructure and eliminate the guesswork and time normally required to ensure component interoperability, reducing both risk and TCO. As a result, organizations can deploy cloud resources faster and minimize over-provisioning, further increasing business agility and improving cost efficiency. To reduce time to resolution and achieve higher availability, Brocade partners further enhance these solutions by providing unified, one-call support.

For maximum flexibility, organizations can implement Virtual Compute Block solutions from a single vendor or systems integrator, incorporate existing infrastructure investments, and expand their resource pool with a diverse mix of vendor solution bundles without compromising fabric performance or adding network complexity.

High-Performance, Cloud-Optimized Networking
Virtual Compute Block solutions deliver industry-leading networks that are optimized for both private and public clouds. These solutions include the following:

• Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches provide 10 GbE wire-speed top-of-rack connectivity between servers, storage, and data center networks. Utilizing innovative Brocade VCS Fabric technology, these switches enable breakthrough Ethernet fabrics, helping environments to scale from hundreds of virtual machines in a single solution bundle to thousands of virtual machines running across multiple bundles, without adding network complexity. All fabric connections are fully active and free of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). Virtual machine mobility extends to all servers, and the entire Ethernet fabric can be managed as a single entity. 
• The Brocade 6510 Switch and Brocade 5100 Switch, delivering 16 and 8 Gbps Fibre Channel connectivity with lower-speed auto-sensing, are the industry's most powerful, yet easy-to-use top-of-rack Fibre Channel connectivity offerings. Built to support growing workloads and meet the demands of hyper-scale private cloud storage, these industry-leading SAN switches feature advanced capabilities, including frame-based trunking, fabric QoS, and port diagnostics, all in an efficiently designed 1U form factor.
• Brocade Blade Server SAN I/O modules are the de facto standard for connecting blade server chassis to Fibre Channel fabrics in the most cost-effective manner. They are specifically designed to deliver high performance and availability in mission-critical storage environments.
• Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapters deliver industry-leading 10 GbE, 10 GbE Data Center Bridging (DCB), FCoE, 2/4/8/16 Gbps Fibre Channel, advanced QoS, and hypervisor offload capabilities for rapidly growing virtual server environments.
• Brocade adapter offerings include 10 GbE Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) for tower, rack, and blade servers as well as Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) for 4/8/16 Gbps connectivity.

• Data Sheets

  • Brocade 1007 CNA for IBM BladeCenter (648 KB)

  • Brocade 1010 and 1020 CNAs (1.4 MB)

  • Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter (942.3 KB)

  • Brocade 5100 Switch (1043.4 KB)

  • Brocade 6510 Switch (825.1 KB)

  • Brocade 8000 Switch (531.7 KB)

  • Brocade BR1741M-k CNA for Dell M-Series Blade Servers (885.6 KB)

  • Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches - Revolutionizing the Way Data Center Networks Are Built (1.3 MB)

• Research and Test Reports

  • Lab Validation: Brocade VCS Fabric Technology (1.2 MB)

• Technical Overview

  • Scalable Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Using Brocade's CloudPlex Architecture (3.5 MB)

• White Papers

  • Brocade and Hitachi Data Systems Join Forces to Automate and Accelerate Cloud Adoption (955.8 KB)

  • Brocade One Data Center Cloud-Optimized Networks (349.1 KB)