Large data center networks often require a lot of effort to manage due to the sheer number of networking devices that need to be controlled. Brocade is aiming to make that management “effortless” with some new innovations that will enable more devices to be consolidated and controlled.
Brocade is anchoring its new efforts under the moniker, The Effortless Network. Looking beyond the branding, the key technology underpinning the effort is HyperEdge, which will enable more physical devices to be managed in a single logical management effort but not be available until the first half of 2013.
“HyperEdge has single point management that enables an IT manager to manage and maintain their entire campus LAN switching layer as if it was a single device,” Lissa Hollinger, director of Product Marketing told InternetNews.com.
Currently, switches can be managed together only in stacks of switches that are within the same wiring closet. The challenge comes in when trying to manage multiple sets of switches spread across disparate locations on a campus network. HyperEdge aims to solves that challenge, through its single point management system.
“When you introduce a new switch into the HyperEdge management domain, that switch is automatically discovered and configured by the master switch,” Hollinger said. “That alleviates the need for an IT manager to manually configure the new switch.”
While HyperEdge aims to solve the switch sprawl management issue, it is not a solution based on standards.
“HyperEdge is not a standards based solution, it is Brocade proprietary,” James Kwon, product manager at Brocade told InternetNews.com. “It does touch the control, data and management planes and there is no standard as of yet that allows us to do all three at once.”
Read the full story at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet:
Brocade Takes Aim at the ‘Effortless Network’
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
