IPv6 Internet transformation with cloud-optimized application delivery solution

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Brocade announced software release version 12.3 for the Brocade ServerIron ADX Series of application delivery switches, which enables these platforms to act as a seamless gateway between existing IPv4 networks and new ones built on IPv6.

This gateway functionality provides Brocade customers with a pragmatic path to adopt IPv6 technology and support both IPv4 and IPv6 environments simultaneously, offering them a seamless and non-disruptive migration strategy.

The 12.3 software release also delivers investment protection and unmatched simplicity, two of the key customer imperatives of the Brocade One strategy—enabling customers to double the performance of their Brocade ServerIron ADX platforms through a simple software upgrade.

IPv6 technology offers a more robust suite of characteristics and dramatically increases the pool of global IP addresses while simplifying network administration, resolving security and mobility issues and improving Quality of Service (QoS). These benefits help Brocade customers take advantage of emerging IT initiatives, such as cloud computing, through high-performance, highly scalable and secure IP networks.

The Brocade ServerIron ADX enables a dual-protocol network through a simplified, yet feature-rich, standards-based IPv4-to-IPv6 translation technology. Unlike router-based translation solutions that only offer basic Layer 3 translation services, the Brocade solution has the high performance Layer 7 intelligence required to ensure continued operations of real world applications and protocols.

This enables service providers, enterprises, and government agencies to systematically adopt IPv6 capabilities without the costly process of replacing their existing IPv4 application infrastructure. Moreover, organizations with IPv6-only capable clients can now connect them to existing IPv4 resources, providing organizations the ability to service to a new population of IPv6-only based clients.

The addition of millions of new Internet-ready devices has also caused a tremendous surge in bandwidth globally. According to traffic patterns at the world’s largest Internet Exchange Points, bandwidth consumption is doubling approximately every 18 months. Rather than requiring a costly rip-and-replace process to increase network performance, Brocade has taken an innovative software-optimization approach to double the performance of key application delivery metrics on existing ServerIron ADX application delivery switches to provide an industry-leading three million HTTP connections per second. This immediately provides existing customers massive performance capacity and efficiency without incurring additional expenditures or a loss in productivity.

“The Brocade ServerIron ADX application delivery switch is at the heart of our commercial offering as it assures availability to our clients,” said Ryan McCarry, managing director at UK-based hosting company, Sleek Networks. “It enables us to provide a managed service with associated financial margins, rather than simply reselling hardware, so our clients benefit from using high-performance technology at a much lower cost. The ServerIron ADX platform has improved the uptake of new business and ultimately contributed towards increasing our revenue and customer satisfaction.”

To further improve application visibility and gain greater control over application delivery, Brocade has also expanded the capabilities of the Brocade Application Resource Broker and enabled simplified third-party integration through an application programming interface (API). This approach provides a simplified and more manageable network infrastructure with added capabilities to improve application optimization. The Brocade ServerIron ADX coupled with Brocade Application Resource Broker helps bridge traditional communication gaps between fragmented networking and application infrastructures, creating a more streamlined approach to application deployment and business efficiency.

“Adoption of new Internet-enabled devices is outpacing the residual capacity of IPv4 addresses, while at the same time the explosive growth in traffic requires far more scalability than today’s application delivery solutions offer,” said Jason Nolet, vice president, Enterprise and Data Center Products, Brocade. “Our new software enhancements to the Brocade ServerIron ADX application delivery switches provide organizations with greater choice to seamlessly adopt IPv6 while effectively doubling the performance of their existing ServerIron ADX switches immediately and at no cost. This provides a scalable, high-performance application delivery solution that increases business agility and operational efficiency, especially in today’s highly virtualized and emerging cloud-based environments.”

The Brocade ServerIron ADX software release version 12.3, including enhancements to the Brocade Application Resource Broker version 1.5, will be generally available in March 2011. Version 12.3.1 will become generally available in May 2011. This is a no-cost software upgrade for customers with valid service contracts.