Brocade, today announced that Brocade® Gen 5 Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions provide a reliable and high-performance foundation to support and enhance new enterprise and all-flash storage systems that were announced today by EMC.

Highly virtualized Cloud

Fibre Channel SANs are a key unifying element for the new EMC® VMAX® 3, and XtremIO™ systems that, as complete end-to-end solutions, allow businesses to redefine what is possible in the data center. As a foundation for these new solutions, Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel SAN directors and switches, sold by EMC under the Connectrix® brand, are purpose-built to support highly virtualized cloud infrastructures and are optimized for all-flash array storage systems that enable applications to perform tasks significantly faster than with traditional disk-based arrays.

Flash storage is another common element across the new EMC XtremIO and VMAX3 systems. To support this EMC innovation, Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel switches are purpose built to maximize system performance, scalability, manageability and availability in all-flash storage. For all flash storage, Fibre Channel offers the highest-bandwidth capability, fast application response time and superior reliability—all which are critical requirements to deliver the full flash benefits for applications and users.

Connectrix deliver performance

“EMC Connectrix networks form the bedrock for private- and hybrid-cloud infrastructures that allow our market leading hybrid and all-flash-enabled storage to deliver the most powerful, trusted and agile solutions to meet customers’ current and future business demands. As part of a shared storage solution, the new features and capabilities built into our flash-enabled VMAX3 and XtremIO all-flash arrays deliver breakthrough application and workload acceleration, consolidation, and agility benefits across the data center and are optimized for the power of these next-generation hybrid and all-flash array storage systems that enable applications to perform tasks significantly faster,” said Barry Ader, Vice President, EMC Corporation.

Connectrix Fibre Channel SANs deliver industry-leading performance to support EMC VMAX3 systems, which now feature 2X the 16 Gbps full line-rate ports to double throughput compared to previous-generation VMAX systems. Brocade Fabric Vision™ technology, integral to Connectrix solutions, complements and enhances the advanced VMAX3 management tools by providing unprecedented visibility and insight across the storage network to maximize uptime and simplify SAN management. Together, the VMAX3 management tools and Fabric Vision technology allow SAN administrators to realize considerable time savings, along with a comprehensive and holistic view of their storage environment.