Features - Storage Innovations:

BROCADE TO EXTEND BENEFITS OF NETWORKED STORAGE TO SMBs

Brocade Communications Systems Inc, a leading provider of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), announced key developments in its strategy to extend the benefits of SANs to first time SAN users in Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) and enterprise departments and remote offices. As part of this initiative, Brocade announced OEM availability of new products designed to reduce the cost and complexity of SANs while delivering the full capability of enterprise-class storage networks. HP, IBM, StorageTek and Sun Microsystems have indicated plans to include the new platforms in their SAN solution offerings.

"In surveys, interviews and conversations, IDC consistently finds that small and medium sized businesses are facing many of the same challenges as large enterprises: their demand for storage capacity continues to grow, but their spending on storage hardware and support staff remains fixed," said Richard Villars, vice president of storage research at IDC. "Until now, most SMBs, as well as branch offices at large enterprises, couldn't take advantage of SANs to boost utilization, availability, and manageability due to high costs and complexity. Our latest research indicates that in 2003 the majority of low-cost servers were not shipped as SAN-ready. Initiatives from SAN vendors such as Brocade that meet the cost and usability needs of SMBs will boost IT managers' ability to manage all storage assets and play a critical role in the continued growth of the networked storage industry."

The keystone of the company's initiative is a family of new 8-port and 16-port Brocade SilkWorm switches that form the foundation for affordable, simplified SANs. These new members of the SilkWorm family set new industry benchmarks for price/performance and ease of use. Featuring a shared system architecture, full code compatibility with all Brocade SAN platforms, and multiple-feature options depending on specific customer configuration needs, the new platforms enable reseller and end-user organizations to install and support Brocadebased SANs from entry-level to enterprise applications, with a clear upgrade path for software feature sets and assured scalability.

"The new Brocade SAN switches fulfill several key end-user requirements," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of marketing. "We are committed to help bring the benefits of SANs to first-time SAN customers by providing breakthroughs in price, scalability and simplicity, while providing our OEM and channel partners with the industry's most flexible and robust family of entry-level SAN infrastructure. We also continue to enhance Brocade Education programs for both end-user and reseller organizations. Programs like Brocade Connect, the Virtual Classroom, What's Your SAN Plan, Web-based training and SAN certification are designed to expand SAN knowledge in the end-user community while supporting all of our go-to-market partners."

Several Brocade OEM partners have already proven the value of delivering SAN capabilities to the SMB market. As part of its solutions aimed at the SMB market, HP announced plans for a new low-cost family of SAN switches based on Brocade's new SilkWorm platforms to be made available under the HP StorageWorks portfolio. Brocade also produces the embedded switch currently utilized in HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array (MSA)1000 SAN bundled solutions designed for entry-level and mid-range customer environments. In addition, IBM expects to expand its IBM TotalStorage solutions for SMB customers with these new Brocade switches. Sun Microsystems also anticipates addressing their SMB customers' needs with these offerings.