Brocade Communications Systems: The Heart and Lungs of the Network

I had a briefing with Brocade (BRCD) soon after I wrote the article; The Server Vendors vs. Cisco: Is This A New Technology War?. Brocade was a little aggrieved that I chose to use Cisco’s Nexus 7000 switch to illustrate the idea that the network hardware vendors were now in a stronger strategic position than the traditional server vendors, in respect of corporate computing. With the Nexus 7000, Cisco (CSCO) was providing technology that runs an OS and manages the whole network, virtualizing the connections between servers. It is thus in the ideal position to manage service levels.

In such an environment servers can be viewed as “application execution resources” to be used as necessary - rather like micro-controllers in a PC. This is especially the case when you introduce dynamic virtualization into the environment, where new instances of virtual machines are created “on the fly”. (If you’re not sure what virtualization is click here.) When that happens, dynamic management of the bandwidth between servers is necessary.

In any event, Brocade is quite correct, I could have used Brocade’s DCX Backbone to illustrate the point that I was making. For the record, the spec of the DCX Backbone is impressive. Here’s a partial list of the product dimensions:

• 896 x 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel ports (in the 2 chassis system)
• 12 Terabit/sec of system I/O bandwidth (yes that’s 1.5 terabytes per second)
• 99.999% availability
• Energy efficient: One-half Watt per Gbit (10x more efficient than competitive offerings)
• No over-subscription
• Explicit consolidation and virtual machine support.

Brocade is claiming leadership in virtual machine support, core bandwidth and power saving, and the technology is available now. (Cisco wont be delivering the Nexus 7000 for a few months yet).

The early use cases of the DCX are in two areas:

1. Server consolidation/virtualization. It isn’t often mentioned in the various server consolidation studies I come across, but there’s a potential gotcha in server consolidation. You can use VMware to put several virtual machines on the same server, but the network bandwidth might not be adequate for the applications that will now run from the same place. The problem is worse if you’re hoping to deploy virtual machines dynamically. The DCX makes this problem go away.
2. SAN upgrade. With I/O bandwidth at 1.5 terabytes per second, you just know there’s not going to be a problem throwing moving even huge heaps of data around.

The Heart and Lungs of the Network

In the briefing, Brocade preferred not to talk in terms of “now the network really is a computer.” I attribute their reluctance to embrace such a vision to the fact that their primary partners are the server vendors. No point in alienating your friends. Instead Brocade proposed the idea that the DCX could and would become “the heart and lungs of the network”. This is a reasonable metaphor, as far as moving processing and data around the network is concerned - although it is a little data-centric.

Architecturally, we had been confined to building applications to run in specific collections of server resources. With the DCX, the relocation and replication of data is largely unconstrained. In other words, some applications are constrained to some degree. Those with heavy workloads may need to be confined to specifically configured server environments for the sake of load balancing and failover, but most applications will not be constrained in this way. The DCX gives you the flexibility to move just about anything to any server or virtual machine and adjust the network to cope with it.

Aside from its contribution to SAN consolidation, network consolidation and server virtualization, I see the “network in a chassis” which is what the DCX effectively is, as the antidote to problems that have not yet arisen. Two particular issues will soon mature. One is how to support converged communications (VoIP ++) within the corporate network in a way that guarantees the 99.999 service that all communications services mandate. The other is how to cope with passing big blobs of video across the network.

System Management for the Network in a Chassis

Brocade provides four distinct management products for the DCX, all of which relate to SANs. They are:

• SAN Health: Diagnostic software that checks for SAN problems.
• Fabric Manager: A SAN Management tool for Brocade FOS-based SANs.
• EFCM: Which provides a single console for managing multiple SANs of all varieties.
• An SMI-S Agent with SMI-S interfaces for third party OEMs

Brocade provides management tools for the network “data fabric” but intends to leave other aspects of managing this environment to the system management vendors such as CA, BMC, EMC, IBM, HP and Sun. There’s sense in this. System Management is not Brocade’s business - at least not yet.

This is a posting in the author's Virtualization Focus Series. Click here to see an index of such postings.

Comments

[andys2i]

Great post. I own Brocade shares and hope they go up soon (I bought them at $10!)

[jgmitz]

So tell me what virtualization and consolidation capabilities does the DCX have besides NPV? They don't support virtual fabrics a t-11 standard. Still one control plane and one data plane, there is no isolation between consolidated san islands. Did you write your article based on a Brocade marketing data-sheet. Where do you get 5-9s reliability? If you lose a CP you lose half the capacity of the box? The box hasnt been shipping for a year and your claiming 5-9s... Come on.... 12 Terabits/sec, great marketing math you have there. Did you forget to mention that using the ICLs between the two chassis is blocking/oversubscribe...

[jteel]

The Heart & Lungs of which Network? My shop requires Ethernet, IP, L2/L3, IPC and FC. The DCX is a brand new platform that supports Fibre Channel only. Are you suggesting Brocade is going to transform themselves into a protocol-agnostic networking company? This involves engineering, ASIC development, integration, management, an over-haul of their support infrastructure and a vast expansion of their existing sales channels. While this may be possible over time with a Herculean effort, how does a Fibre Channel only product from a FC only company today help me to achieve any of the initiatives you outline in your article? How does a DCX and Nexus 7000 comparision deliver any relevance?

[ThePM]

"...(Cisco wont be delivering the Nexus 7000 for a few months yet)."

Based on what, did Brocade tell you this? Please get the facts straight, rather than just repeating what Brocade tell you.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 is shipping now, and has been orderable for several months. Take a look at the Cisco web sites, documentation is posted, and the NX-OS is downloadable.

As far as running a VoIP across the DCX ask Brocade how many customers they currently have with LAN interfaces deployed on any of their switches, and then try to work out how to get telephony to run over FC.

[smack]

Wow, you sure got the Cisco fans riled up. These posters sound like a bunch of whiny babies.

I dont see much of a comparison of the Nexus and DCX products...Nexus is mostly IP and DCX is mostly FC...maybe when FCoE is a reality this will change...

Bottom line...sounds like Cisco and Brocade marketing folks are promising a lot that neither can deliver on immediately.

[User 209943]

I think everyone should have referenced Robin's original article praising Cisco and their Nexus 7000 which he cites within the first paragraph. he appears to have given Brocade a chance to make their case - albeit architecturally slanted to their fibre bias - AFTER he had made quite a strong inevitability case for Cisco and their new "switch", or 'blades in a cage', in the earlier article.