Brocade has announced that several of its Ethernet and storage area networking (SAN) fabric switches have been integrated by Hitachi Data Systems for networking technology in the new Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) converged infrastructure solutions. Brocade is delivering both top-of-rack switches as well as embedded server switches based on Fibre Channel and Ethernet technologies, reinforcing the company’s leadership in its ability to offer comprehensive datacentre networking solutions for critical IT and service provider environments.

Specifically, Brocade Ethernet and SAN fabric products have been designed into Hitachi UCP pre-validated reference solutions and integrated turnkey solutions, which are built with Hitachi storage and servers. The solutions are designed to offer customers the choice and flexibility to support hypervisor, database and application environments, including Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and VMware. The Brocade products that will be offered through Hitachi UCP are Brocade VDX 6720 Switch for Ethernet fabrics, Brocade VDX 6746 Embedded Switch for Ethernet fabrics, Brocade 6510 Switch for Fibre Channel SAN fabrics and Brocade 5460 Embedded Switch for Fibre Channel SAN fabrics.

“Brocade was selected as a valued component of the Hitachi UCP family of solutions based on our proven track record for delivering networking solutions with unprecedented simplicity and automation, massive scalability and reliability for consolidating business-critical enterprise applications,” said Jason Nolet, Vice President, Datacentre Networking Group at Brocade. “Brocade networking solutions provide a highly resilient foundation for the Hitachi storage and server options to support hypervisor, database and application environments. Customers simply select the infrastructure options that meet their needs, with the assurance of built-in flexibility and interoperability to scale the architecture as business needs change.”

Taking datacentre network simplicity, efficiency and resiliency to a new scale, the Brocade VDX standalone and embedded Ethernet fabric switches deliver a radically simplified datacentre network for Hitachi UCP converged infrastructure solutions. Designed specifically for highly virtualised environments, Ethernet fabrics built on Brocade VCS Fabric technology accelerate application deployment and enable faster virtual machine (VM) migrations through zero-touch VM discovery, VM mobility and VM port configuration migration. Using VCS fabrics, Hitachi UCP customers can manage up to dozens of switches as a single logical device, dramatically reducing operational costs. They can also save installation time as new switches self-provision when they are connected to the fabric.

“Brocade’s strategic partnership with Hitachi Data Systems has generated a decade-plus track record of success in our mutual channel partners and customers,” said Ravi Chalaka, Vice President, Solutions Marketing, at Hitachi Data Systems. “Over this time, we’ve worked together to integrate and provide networking products from across Brocade’s portfolio with outstanding results, so we are pleased and excited that Brocade networking technologies are featured components of the Hitachi UCP family of solutions.”