Brocade Adds Encryption To Storage Fabric

encryption network management data center

Brocade unveiled two new solutions for encrypting data using centralized management for data-at-rest, said Mario Blandini, director of product marketing.

The first, the stand-alone Brocade Encryption Switch, is a 2U appliance with 32 8-Gbit-per-second Fibre Channel ports. The second, the Brocade FS8-18 Encryption Blade for the Brocade DCX Backbone chassis, is a blade for Brocade's DCX Fibre Channel backbone, and includes 16 ports.

Both offer up to 96 Gbits per second of encryption using AES-256 for disk and GCM IEEE 1619.1 for tape.

The new Brocade encryption platform integrates with several key management products for enterprise-wide key management and data center encryption, including NetApp's Lifetime Key Management and EMC RSA's Key Manager for the Datacenter, Blandini said. Future releases will include integration with HP StorageWorks Secure Key Manager and nCipher/Thales Key Authority, he said.

The new platform also supports encryption with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 5.4, Legato Networker 7.3, Symantec Veritas NetBackup 6.5, and CommVault Galaxy Data Protection 7.0, with certification for use with HP Data Protector 6.5 and BakBone NetVault 8.1 expected soon, he said.

Brocade's new DCFM 10 comes at a time when customers' storage environments are increasingly complex, especially given the growth of virtual servers, Blandini said.

"Everything is becoming more complex," he said. "The trick is to take advantage of virtualization without making it too complicated."

DCFM 10 is a plan to help customers evolve in a non-disruptive way to extended data center fabrics, including branch offices and remote disaster recovery sites, with both physical and virtual servers, Blandini said.

"And we want to help channel partners build out the data center while protecting their customers' current investments," he said.

DCFM 10.0 configures and manages the complete portfolio of Brocade storage networking backbones, directors, extension devices, and switches, including legacy Brocade products as well as the storage networking products Brocade received with its $713 million acquisition two years ago of rival.

It is available in two versions, Blandini said. DCFM Professional is bundled free with all new Brocade switches, and can manage a single fabric with up to 1,000 switch ports. DCFM Enterprise scales to up to 9,000 ports with up to 20,000 attached devices including physical and virtual servers.

When combined with Brocade Fibre Channel host bus adapters, DCFM provides end-to-end monitoring of a Fibre Channel fabric, including reporting on network statistics including congestion between storage and both physical and virtual servers, Blandini said.

"Today, it's hard enough to do with physical servers," he said. "But as you add virtual servers, how do you keep track of everything? How do you monitor everything? You need to report back to the hypervisor."