Brocade this week rolled out new and enhanced campus switches designed to better support mobility, social networking and cloud data traffic in the enterprise.
Brocade enhanced its existing ICX 7750 switch, unveiled the new ICX 7450 device, and added OpenFlow 1.3 support to all members of the ICX line. Brocade also released new and enhanced campus networking products under its joint development agreement with wireless LAN vendor Aruba Networks.
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The ICX 7750 is a 1U fixed configuration 10/40G Ethernet switch for campus LAN aggregation and core. Upgrades to it include distributed chassis capabilities for scale, the ability to stack 12 switches for increased core and aggregation density, and automated network configuration through consolidated management and software-defined networking extensions.
The 7750 supports up to 32 40G ports or 104 10G ports in a single device. In a 960Gbps stack, the switch provides up to 3,000 10G or 800 40G ports in a single distributed chassis.
The new ICX 7450 is a 1U switch with three expansion slots for 1, 10, or 40G Ethernet uplinks. Up to 12 7450s can be stacked, with 160Gbps of stacking bandwidth, for densities up to 576 Gigabit Ethernet and 48 10G Ethernet ports. The 7450 also offers Power over HDBaseT to power video surveillance and video conferencing equipment, VDI terminals, and HD displays, Brocade says.
To aid and abet the migration to SDNs among the ICX customer base, Brocade has made OpenFlow 1.3 universally supported on the switches, be they deployed individually, in mixed stacks, or in distributed stacks. OpenFlow operates in Brocade Hybrid Port Mode to support both OpenFlow forwarding and normal routing traffic forwarding.
Lastly, Brocade and Aruba have achieved some milestones from their joint development agreement reached earlier this year. They include new product releases of Brocade Network Advisor 12.3, Aruba Airwave 8.0, and Brocade FastIron 8.0.20 with Aruba ClearPass CoA support for unified wired and wireless policy enforcement, as well as single-pane-of-glass network management
List pricing for the Brocade ICX 7450 Switch starts at $3,095 with general availability starting this month.
This story, "Brocade beefs up campus with SDN, new stackable" was originally published by Network World.
