Brocade announces end-to-end Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN connectivity support for EMC VMAX

The combined EMC and Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel solution enables best-in-class networking and storage to support highly virtualized cloud infrastructures. This solution allows enterprises to deploy a storage infrastructure featuring EMC® Connectrix® 16 Gbps Fibre Channel modular and fixed-port switches and 16 Gbps Fibre Channel-capable VMAX storage arrays. Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN switches are sold by EMC under the Connectrix brand.

“EMC and Brocade continue to collaborate to deliver customers best-in-class storage and SAN products to support the ever-increasing demands for performance and mission criticality in virtualized cloud environments. VMAX now offers 16 Gbps Fibre Channel to leverage Brocade’s Gen 5 Fibre SAN connectivity solution on Connectrix, allowing enterprises to future-proof their data centers while adding our newest technology,” said Isabelle Guis, Vice President, Marketing, Enterprise Storage Division, EMC Corporation.

“As the SAN market leader, Brocade offers the industry’s broadest offerings for Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN connectivity solutions that enable EMC Connectrix and VMAX customers to create the most reliable and highest-performing storage networks,” said Jack Rondoni, Brocade Vice President, Data Center Storage and Solutions. “We are excited that EMC is now delivering enhanced VMAX storage arrays that can fully leverage the breakthrough capabilities we have designed into our Gen 5 SAN solutions that help simplify administration and reduce operational costs. These innovations also include our recently announced Fabric Vision technology, combing to create the industry’s most advanced SAN management solution.”

Unique to the Brocade Fibre Channel SAN family, Fabric Vision technology is a hardware and software solution that helps IT organizations accelerate new SAN deployments, optimize resources and dramatically reduce operational costs. With Fabric Vision technology, administrators have new tools and automation capabilities that simplify day-to-day SAN management tasks, increase productivity and enable more proactive management of SAN infrastructures to help ensure the highest levels of availability and performance.