Brocade develops ethernet fabric for cloud computing

Brocade has developed a fabric-based ethernet network, designed to tackle the challenges of networking in a cloud computing environment.

According to Brocade, Ethernet networks are not designed for cloud computing. While network managers have previously been able to optimise networks by managing performance at the network’s core, Marcus Jewell, regional sales director at Brocade, says virtualisation means network traffic becomes unpredictable.

"There is more complexity in delivering cloud network. Virtualisation doesn’t fit with traditional network optimisation because you don’t know where the server is located."

Ethernet networks are built as hierarchical networks, which Brocade claims cannot support virtualisation.

"You need an Ethernet fabric managed as one logical switch," says Jewell.

The storage networking company has developed what it says is a flat layer two network self-healing fabric. According to Jewell the Brocade Ethernet fabric switch offers enterprises the ability to reconfigure ports automatically, along with distributed intelligence, which he says are important considerations when adapting a network for virtualisation and cloud computing.

The Brocade Fabric OS 7.0, which will be available during Q2 2011, supports virtualisation and cloud architectures, including bottleneck detection, advanced performance monitoring and adaptive networking to help optimise fabric behaviour and application performance.