Brocade Communications has expanded its portfolio by adding a new campus switches and expanded support for software-defined networking.
The company said Tuesday the additions will allow enterprises to transform their edge networks to better support mobility, social and cloud traffic.
New products are
–the ICX 7450 campus stackable switch;
–a distributed chassis option for the ICX 7750, for scale-out networking;
In addition, the entire ICX line now supports the OpenFlow 1.3 protocol for SDN.
“Campus customers require a high-performance network infrastructure that is future-proof, that is simple to provision and manage, and that can scale at the speed of business. The latest innovations in the Brocade ICX portfolio significantly advance these capabilities and ensure that customers are prepared for the New IP,” Jason Nolet, vice-president of Brocade’s switching, routing and analytics products.
The ICX 7750 offers 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet port density and high availability in a fixed platform combined with a distributed deployment architecture to eliminate the need for expensive and rigid chassis solutions, the company said.
The new scale-out architecture enables up to 12 switches to be stacked across the campus in a more flexible topology for network aggregation and core layers
Consolidated management and support for SDN to automate network configuration tasks will resulting in 75 per cent lower operational cost compared to legacy campus networks, Brocade says.
The ICX 7450 has a modular design with three expansion slots for a choice of one, 10, or 40 GbE uplinks.
Up to 12 switches can be stacked, giving 160 Gbps of stacking bandwidth, and long-distance stacking using open-standards QSFP+ ports to enable single-point management across the campus.
Capabilities include Power over HDBaseT (PoH), to power video surveillance and video conferencing equipment, VDI terminals, and HD displays directly from the switch.
List price for the Brocade ICX 7450 Switch starts at US$3,095 with general availability starting this month.
Brocade and wireless equipment maker Aruba Networks also said have created an open standard for interoperating their gear. Brocade Network Advisor 12.3, Aruba Airwave 8.0, and Brocade FastIron 8.0.20 with Aruba ClearPass CoA support now support the combined Brocade/Aruba integrated portfolios.
The combined solution delivers unified wired and wireless policy enforcement as well as network monitoring capabilities.
