Brocade Debuts Top-of-rack Data Center Switch

Brocade introduced a top-of-the-rack data center switch with a base price starting at $4,945.


The new Brocade FCX series of 10/100/1000 Mbps with 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) uplink top-of-rack (ToR) switches are designed for data center performance and simplified management in virtualized server environments.


To address the growing need to scale and support highly virtualized data centers, customers can stack the Brocade FCX switches horizontally across server racks to create a single logical switch.


The Brocade FCX switches are available in 24- or 48-port models with wire-speed performance. They deliver up to 40 Gbps of switching bandwidth between stack members to help minimize inter-switch bottlenecks. The switches have an optional 4-port 10 GbE module, doubling the number of 10 GbE connections between network layers.


To facilitate unified management and increase security through multiple interfaces, the new Brocade FCX series leverages an industry-standard command-line interface. In addition, Brocade IronView Network Manager (INM) displays network- and application-level traffic information in a secure Web-based management interface to greatly simplify network provisioning, troubleshooting and alarm reporting. In response to a detected security threat, Brocade INM can automatically apply a security policy, thwarting network attacks in real time without administrator intervention.


Separately, Brocade reported this week that its gear is now deployed in the three top Internet Exchange Points (IXP) worldwide. The company noted that its NetIron MLX routers allow users to combined as many as 32-ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) to provide an aggregated link capacity of 320 Gbps. Brocade has also applied advanced load-sharing algorithms in order to fully utilize the increased capacity, establishing a highly advanced link aggregation solution.
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