The network architecture offers a foundation for a large range of system expansion and growth choices for the enterprise customer. Brocade OEM partners that have already announced or indicated qualification of the SilkWorm 24000 include HP, EMC, HDS, IBM, StorageTek and Sun Microsystems.
The network supports up to 128, non-blocking 2 Gbps full duplex ports in a single domain and is built to exceed stringent data center performance and availability requirements. Based on the common fabric operating system used by the Brocade family of switches and directors, the SilkWorm 24000 is compatible with the largest number of installed SANs worldwide.
The network also significantly lowers the customer's ongoing operational costs by providing the lowest power consumption and most efficient heat dissipation for any director in the industry.
"We asked enterprise customers who have deployed some of the largest SANs in production today, to list their top director requirements for today and tomorrow," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade vice president of marketing. "The SilkWorm 24000 is designed to meet those requirements in mission-critical environments, support our commitment to long-term customer investment protection, and reduce the cost of managing storage environments, while providing the flexibility to keep pace with technology changes."
The network complements the company's existing SilkWorm 12000 Director, which has gained over 30 percent of the director market with its dual 64-port domain architecture. Brocade also announced seamless upgrade paths for existing SilkWorm 12000 customers to migrate to SilkWorm 24000 functionality.
"Today's enterprise customers need to reduce the TCO of SANs while also increasing their flexibility, performance, and investment protection," said Frank Harbist, vice president and general manager of Storage Software and Infrastructure for HP. "Brocade's new 128 port Director provides the high-availability, high-performance features required for mission-critical SAN deployments that assure investment protection for our customers. We're excited to be among the first vendors to make it available to our customers."
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