Brocade VCS Fabric Technology

Brocade VCS Fabric technology helps organizations create efficient data center networks that just work. Ethernet fabrics built on Brocade VCS Fabric technology provide unmatched VM awareness and automation compared to traditional network architectures and competitive fabric offerings. In addition, they increase flexibility and IT agility, enabling organizations to transition smoothly to elastic, mission-critical networks in highly virtualized data centers.

Non-Stop Networking
Brocade VCS fabrics are self-forming, self-healing, and highly resilient. By eliminating Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), they provide active-active connections originating from the server, which doubles the utilization of the entire network while improving resilience. Featuring a high level of resiliency, Brocade VCS fabrics provide rapid failover and fabric reconvergence, and links can be added or modified quickly and non-disruptively.

Unlike other Ethernet fabric architectures, Brocade VCS fabrics are masterless and can be designed in full mesh, partial mesh, leaf-spine, and various other topologies, and they are easily modified or fine-tuned as application demands change over time.

Only Brocade VCS-enabled fabric switches provide very elastic Layer 2 and Layer 3 domains with multiple active-active Layer 3 gateways and highly efficient load balancing at Layers 1-3. In addition, fabric-embedded VM-aware network automation provides secure connectivity and full visibility to virtualized resources with dynamic learning and activation of port profiles. This helps ensure consistency across all physical and logical fabric elements and minimizes downtime due to human errors.

Simplified, Automated Networks
Brocade VCS fabrics are designed to make it easier to automate the network itself as well as provide zero-touch virtualization support. The fabric is automatically aware of all devices (servers, switches, appliances) within its domain. Organizations can add and remove switches from a VCS fabric without any manual configuration, and physical and virtual servers can be located upon connection without manual reconfiguration. Brocade VCS fabrics are designed to appear as a single switch to the rest of the network. This significantly reduces complexity in the management layer, which in turn simplifies troubleshooting.

Brocade VCS Fabric technology is hypervisor-agnostic, providing VM alignment capabilities that match the reality of most data centers. The Brocade Automatic Migration of Port Profiles (AMPP) and VM-aware network automation features are intrinsic to the fabric. These features enable organizations to automatically align virtual server and network infrastructure resources and realize the full benefits of server virtualization without additional management overhead.

An Evolutionary Approach for Investment Protection
Brocade VCS fabrics operate seamlessly within traditional Ethernet architectures in access or aggregation tiers, allowing non-disruptive implementation within existing network environments.

Increasing VM density means increasing I/O at the access point. By eliminating STP within the access layer, VCS fabrics immediately double the available links and bandwidth to the servers, without multiplying the capital and facilities costs of twice as many switches. In environments with significant “east-west” traffic within server clusters, it also greatly helps improve latency.

VCS fabrics can flatten the network and simplify the access and aggregation layers, which can immediately reduce TCO by 15 to 20 percent, taking into account capital costs and reduced management overhead, as well as power, cooling, and space needs.

Core switches are typically the most expensive part of a data center network. By implementing Ethernet fabrics at the access and/or aggregation tiers rather than in the core, VCS fabrics provide a low cost of adoption while preserving existing core network investments.

• At A Glance

  • Ease of Use of VCS Fabric Technology Augmented by Brocade Network Advisor (2.6 MB)

  • ISL Trunking for Brocade VCS (582.1 KB)

  • Scaling Out Data Centers with Brocade VCS Fabric Technology and Brocade VDX Switches (1032.2 KB)

• Data Sheets

  • Brocade Premier And Premier-Plus Support – Direct Support (594.8 KB)

  • Brocade VDX 6710 Switches - Revolutionizing the Way Data Center Networks Are Built (1005.3 KB)

  • Brocade VDX 6720 Switches - Revolutionizing the Way Data Center Networks Are Built (1.1 MB)

  • Brocade VDX 6730 Switches - Revolutionizing the Way Data Center Networks Are Built (1.1 MB)

  • Brocade VDX 8770 Switch (1.2 MB)

• Deployment Guides

  • Brocade VCS Fabric Technology and ELD Deployment with NOS (359.4 KB)

  • Brocade VCS Fabric Technology and vLAG Deployment with NOS (600.1 KB)

• Design Guides

  • Brocade VDX/VCS Data Center Layer 2 Fabric Design Guide for NOS  v2.1.1 (5.8 MB)

• Positioning Papers

  • Network Transformation with SDN and Ethernet Fabrics (407.3 KB)

• Product Reviews

  • Brocade Networking with EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure (100 VMs) (1.2 MB)

  • Brocade Networking with EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure (500 VDI) (1.2 MB)

• Solution Briefs

  • Brocade and IBM Big Data Analytics Solutions (871.4 KB)

  • Brocade and IBM Big Data And Telemetry Solutions (1052 KB)

  • Brocade and Trend Micro Solution (2.2 MB)

  • Brocade and VMware: Optimizing Data Center Virtualization and Cloud Computing (1.8 MB)

  • Brocade VCS Fabric Technology, the Plug-n-Play Cloud Computing Network for Isilon Scale-out NAS (668.7 KB)

  • Brocade Virtual Compute Blocks for VMware (1.5 MB)

• Solution Guides

  • Brocade VCS Fabric Technology and Network-Attached Storage (NAS) with Network File System (NFS) (5 MB)

• Success Stories

  • Brocade Provides Long-Term Network Solution for Iowa Health System (338.2 KB)

  • Government Employees Health Association: Ethernet Fabrics Provide a Healthy Choice for GEHA (1.1 MB)

  • i3D.net Keeps Players Happy with Brocade (1046.7 KB)

  • OnCore IT (1030.4 KB)

  • PayPerCloud: Hosting Company Finds Success in the Cloud with Brocade (935.5 KB)

  • PeakColo Goes to the Cloud and Rises above the Competition (1.1 MB)

  • Singing River Health System: Brocade Helps Singing River Health System Transform Care Delivery (938.5 KB)

  • SIPCOM: Boosts Revenue with Hosted Microsoft UC Services (935.1 KB)

  • SunPower: Brocade Reduces Costs While Boosting Functionality at SunPower (942.6 KB)

  • United Prepares for HDTV and Video on Demand Needs with Brocade Ethernet Fabrics (1.1 MB)

• Technical Briefs

  • Brocade VCS Technical Architecture (4.8 MB)

  • X86 Virtual Servers and Network Challenges (553.1 KB)

• White Papers

  • An Introduction to Brocade VCS Fabric Technology (990 KB)

  • Brocade VCS Fabric Technology Creates "Plug and Play" Network for On-Demand Applications (2.2 MB)

  • Deploying Brocade VDX 6720 Switches with Brocade VCS Fabric Technology in Enterprise Data Centers (953.8 KB)

  • Setting a New Standard for Network Efficiency with VCS Fabric Multilayer, Multipathing Capabilities (816.1 KB)

  • The Total Economic Impact of Brocade VCS Fabric Technology (215.6 KB)

  • What Is an Ethernet Fabric? (872.6 KB)