Brocade, which provides data centre fabric networking solutions, has introduced a new extension platform that enables enterprises to achieve significantly shorter recovery points and faster recovery times for restoring data and applications in the event of a disaster, or when performing routine backup and replication tasks over unreliable WAN links.
According to IDC, disaster recovery requirements have become increasingly stringent for their mission-critical applications, with 84% of enterprises expecting recovery point objectives (RPOs) of less than an hour and 78% expecting recovery time objectives (RTOs) of under four hours*.
"With stored data expected to grow at a 44% CAGR over the next five years, enterprises are demanding that their recovery solutions meet ever higher standards in keeping data available amid a wide variety of increasingly frequent natural and man-made disasters," said Eric Burgener, Research Director for storage at IDC. "Furthermore, end users are expecting to access their data on a 7x24 basis, forcing enterprises to meet their demands for 'always on' application services."
To address these challenges and to provide near-zero downtime and continuous application availability, Brocade has expanded its Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN portfolio with the addition of the Brocade 7840 Extension Switch, which delivers a six-fold increase in performance, along with better availability and simplified management between remote data centres. The solution also doubles the performance, at half the cost, compared to WAN optimisation appliances that are often mismatched when deployed as a disaster recovery alternative.
The new disaster recovery platform also extends Brocade Fabric Vision technology between data centres to automate monitoring, increase insight, and simplify troubleshooting over distance.
"Managing multiple data centres is inherently complex and time-intensive," said Jack Rondoni, VP, Storage Networking, at Brocade. "By deploying the Brocade 7840 Extension Switch with enhanced Fabric Vision technology, organisations can create better solutions that meet or exceed their requirements and expectations for faster replication and recovery to achieve always-on operations."
Furthering the company's reputation for innovation in storage fabrics, Brocade 7840 switches offer both the industry's first 40 Gbps and 10 Gbps fibre channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity options. Brocade 7840 systems deliver 80 Gbps of application data throughput while securing data flows over distance with 256-bit IPsec encryption without a performance penalty.
In addition, Brocade 7840 switches significantly improve replication performance over distance using data compression and disk and tape protocol acceleration.
Key features for the disaster recovery platform include:
• Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS): Simplifies monitoring with policy-based automation between data centres to automatically detect WAN anomalies and avoid unplanned downtime.
• Flow Vision: Accelerates troubleshooting of end-to-end I/O flows over distance with integrated diagnostics and eliminates the need for expensive third-party tools.
• Dashboards: Quickly discover and resolve WAN network issues via root-cause analysis and point-in-time playback. In addition, administrators can view all critical information from thin-client, Web-accessible dashboards, which saves significant administrative time and effort.
In addition, the company also announced the Brocade FC16-64, a new port blade for the Brocade DCX 8510 Director that provides the industry's highest density and most energy-efficient connectivity to maximise system utilisation and reduce both capital and operating costs. The new blade increases Brocade DCX 8510 scalability up to 512 Gen 5 Fibre Channel ports with a total system bandwidth of 10.2 Terabits per second (Tbps). Each blade consumes 70% less power compared to competitive offerings, while simultaneously increasing port density by 33% and reducing cabling requirements by 75%.
The Brocade 7840 Extension Switch, extended Fabric Vision technology, and the Brocade FC16-64 port blade for the Brocade DCX 8510 will be available this calendar quarter through select Brocade OEM partners, including EMC, HDS, and others.
"Data protection is fundamental to IT transformation and has enabled EMC customers to move backup and recovery and replication from a cost centre to a business enabler. The increased performance and functionality of the Brocade 7840 is a strategic addition to our Connectrix family that increases the overall value of the EMC Protection Storage Architecture," said Barry Ader, Vice President, Product Marketing, EMC.
"Keeping our mutual customers operating nonstop is more than just planning for disaster recovery - it's about building a resilient enterprise. With significant improvements in throughput, along with improved network control and insight, the Brocade 7840 is an ideal high-performance data centre extension platform for backup and replication that will improve our customer's data and application availability," added Linda Xu, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems.
*Measuring Cost of Downtime and Recovery Objectives Among US Firms, Laura Dubois, Eric Burgener, Robert Amatruda, IDC, December 2013 (Doc. #245125)
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