IBM announced yesterday that Brocade, the industry leader in Fibre Channel SAN switching, would for the first time offer two crucial switches for IBM'...

IBM announced yesterday that Brocade, the industry leader in Fibre Channel SAN switching, would for the first time offer two crucial switches for IBM's eServer BladeCenter system. The new switches from Brocade position IBM as the only vendor in the world to offer a fully integrated Brocade Fibre Channel switching capability in a blade server system.

The agreement removes a key barrier for existing customers who had been unable to take advantage of Brocade's advanced functions in a blade server environment. Blades are ultra-slim servers that are stacked in a chassis side by side, much like books on a shelf. Because they take up significantly less space than traditional rack servers, Blade servers enable customers to reduce "server sprawl" and better manage their computing infrastructures.

The first of the Brocade switches is an entry level product that can connect to fabrics of two switches and is designed for small and medium businesses. The Brocade Entry SAN Switch Module can be expanded to provide the ability for smaller companies to grow on demand to meet their business needs. The Brocade Enterprise SAN Switch Module delivers full SAN fabric support for large Storage Area Networks and can connect to fabrics that consist of up to 239 switches.

"In many ways, the acceptance of blade servers mirrors the adoption of SAN technologies; both are key technologies for financial services, telecommunications and other data intensive, mission-critical computing environments," said Tom Buiocchi, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Brocade. "We are excited about the growth potential in this expanding market and are very proud to collaborate with IBM to integrate the new Brocade switch into the IBM eServer BladeCenter ecosystem."

The Brocade Switch Modules simply "plug" into the BladeCenter chassis, allowing the switches to leverage the cooling and power design of BladeCenter. Since these switches are integrated it is not necessary for customers to purchase additional cabling, power supplies or cooling -- simplifying the solution and helping save customers money.

"IBM now delivers datacenter standards for our BladeCenter customers who use Brocade. By integrating industry-leading Brocade SAN switching capabilities into our BladeCenter we are helping customers reduce the complexity of their SANs while increasing their manageability," said Jeff Benck, vice president IBM eServer BladeCenter. "With this announcement, BladeCenter now incorporates advanced Brocade Fibre Channel switching capability that will allow customers to integrate our blade solution seamlessly into their existing datacenter infrastructure with the performance, scalability and security they demand of enterprise solutions."

IBM customers can choose from perhaps the industry's most extensive portfolio of blade server systems, modules and options. IBM is the only company providing customers a choice of blades with BladeCenter systems possessing 64-bit PowerPC technology (eServer JS20), or highly scalable 2-way and 4-way BladeCenter systems with 32-bit Intel Xeon processor technology (eServer HS20 and eServer HS40). IBM also offers a specialized chassis, BladeCenter-T, which is hardened to meet the demanding needs and NEBS requirements of the telecom, defense and aerospace industries.

Additionally, IBM eServer BladeCenter has recently completed testing with the IBM eServer BladeCenter and IBM TotalStorage® SAN File System -- storage software technology designed to speed information access, sharing and management. The IBM TotalStorage SAN File System is independent of the hardware platform the SAN File System Clients run on and has been successfully tested with the Windows client running on BladeCenter.

While BladeCenter addresses server proliferation and network complexity, SAN File System helps improve data access and management by providing a single data store spanning multiple tiers of storage across multiple Blades and other server platforms on the SAN. It helps enhance storage and server personnel productivity through centralized and policy-based data management. BladeCenter together with SAN File System provide a strong combination to help customers reduce the complexity of managing their server and storage infrastructure.

This reflects the continuing demonstration of IBM's focus on helping customers better manage their overall IT infrastructure -- at all levels: server, network and storage.


About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business.

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