Avnet Technology adopts Brocade Ethernet fabric in Australia

Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distributor and an operating group of Avnet, is providing its reseller network in Australia with the opportunity to create revenue streams based on virtualized technology through deploying Brocade's Ethernet fabric at its two Australian data centres. 

Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with customers and suppliers to create and deliver services, software, and hardware solutions that address the business needs of their end-user customers. With Australia ranking among the leaders in Asia Pacific in terms of cloud service uptake, the new network infrastructure, based on Brocade VDX switches and VCS Fabric technology, is part of Avnet’s plan to support self-provisioning of cloud computing resources by its Australian resellers.

“Avnet has a central goal to fully automate our Australian data centers and enable comprehensive network virtualisation. This will enable our channel partners’ networks to self-provision their virtual machine capabilities, further reducing the costs of offering a cloud solution and providing better return on investment on networking,” said Darren Adams, VP and GM, Avnet Technology Solutions, Australia and New Zealand.

To provide a strong foundation for its cloud data center operations, Avnet chose to implement an Ethernet fabric that, as a single large Ethernet domain, would deliver the agility and performance required to support virtualised data centres. Requirements included 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) server access ports, operating at wire speed and with very low port-to-port latency; self-configuration and self-management capabilities;and support for both VXLAN and NVGRE, two emerging software-defined networking (SDN) protocols for virtual machine mobility.

“What we put in place is leading-edge, so it was important to find a network technology partner that understands our business goals and would work with us to deliver the infrastructure and solutions to support those goals. Brocade has really come through for us both in terms of technology and support. Its SDN roadmap is very strong, which gives us a great deal of confidence about supporting both VMware and Microsoft virtualisation stacks across the same infrastructure—and being able to leverage SDN service-chaining for network security,” said Adams.

Avnet was involved in the global pilot programme for the Brocade VDX 6740 Switch, and subsequently became one of the earliest adopters of the new switch in the Asia Pacific region. The Brocade engineering group worked with the Avnet team in Sydney to ensure the new cloud-infrastructure was properly set up, and provided dedicated training on the new technology.

Source: Brocade. Judd.

“As the momentum shifts to cloud services, there is a growing trend in Australia for vendors and partners to work closely together on virtualisation initiatives. Avnet is one of the key members of the global Brocade Alliance Partner Network programme and we are proud that not only do they believe in our solutions from a distribution perspective, they are totally committed to the benefits Brocade solutions bring to the table with their own business,” said Adam Judd, VP for Asia Pacific, Brocade.