In my January blog I provided a high-level overview of the technology at Brocade’s new state-of-the-art San Jose campus. Now, I’d like to focus on a specific area of that infrastructure, one that’s critical to Brocade and to its customers: the network.
We began mapping our requirements about a year and a half ago. The goal was to design a high-speed, secure, scalable, and reliable IP network foundation – one that would deliver the right mix of functionality, performance, scalability, security, and cost savings. Wherever possible, we wanted to leverage our own capabilities and products.
In fact, the SAN and IP networks at the new campus will rely on Brocade products exclusively for the fast and reliable connectivity we need to serve the ever-growing demands of business applications. To limit downtime during data migration, Brocade will use its SAN/Fibre Channel products to complete an 8 Gbps Fibre Channel connection between the SAN infrastructures serving the current buildings and the new campus. Brocade NetIron XMR Series routers will link the existing and new IP networks at 20 Gbps of bandwidth with virtually no latency.
The network transport connecting the Brocade campus and vendor-neutral co-location facilities will travel over a dense Wavelength Division-Multiplexing (WDM) network with optical protection, for uninterrupted, high-bandwidth connectivity to the outside world. To provide best-in-class content delivery, we’ll use the Brocade ServerIron ADX platform.
WAN connectivity between Brocade and partner networks will leverage inexpensive Ethernet and allow us to connect directly to service providers and business partners with cost-effective, scalable bandwidth via co-location facilities. This gives us the flexibility to engage as needed, match capacity to demand, and pay as we go.
The network core and data center at the new campus will use Brocade NetIron MLX technology. Because our technology eliminates the need for the aggregation layer in a traditional network configuration, we can connect the network edge directly to the core. This will greatly reduce capital outlay and simplify operations. It also lessens requirements for space, power, and cooling for lower total cost of ownership.
We’ll further reduce our space, power, and cooling requirements in our wiring closets by installing Brocade FastIron CX access switches at the network edge. Essentially, we’re looking at every opportunity to do more at a lower overall cost, and to do it better.
Finally, we’re leveraging our OEM relationship with Motorola to build a next-generation Wireless LAN (WLAN) at the campus. Basically, the entire facility will be a Wi-Fi hotspot, which will help maximize productivity by allowing employees to seamlessly connect to business applications, regardless of their location on campus.
With just 10 weeks remaining until move-ins start, there’s still a lot to do. When it’s finished, the new campus will be served by a world-class converged IPv6-ready network offering a secure, scalable, and robust voice and data platform for assured rich multimedia content delivery. The network will serve VoIP, wireless, video, and Web services, and support future applications such as Fixed Mobile Convergence and Unified Communications (UC). We’re excited about our momentum, and I’m pleased to report that we’re on schedule.