Brocade delivers Open Turnkey SDN solution for the new IP

Brocade has introduced the Brocade® Flow Optimiser application and new SDN capabilities in Brocade MLX® Series routers. In the New IP, the Brocade Flow Optimiser enables the network to play a role in understanding anomalous traffic patterns and behaviours, and flags them or takes action in real time.

The Brocade Flow Optimiser is an SDN application that supports an OpenDaylight-based controller that provides real-time policy-based management for network traffic flows. When coupled with Brocade MLXe routers, the Brocade Flow Optimiser enables service providers and enterprises to gain proactive insight into their network traffic, mitigate network attacks, and eliminate network congestion, with the ultimate goal of improving the end user experience.

Organisations operating in today’s New IP environment face increasing demands for cloud-based applications and need to support social, mobile, and Big Data initiatives. However, network performance combined with security-related attacks and breaches continue to impede delivery of services and create additional challenges to network and service reliability. The Brocade Flow Optimiser application allows network managers to mitigate network flood attacks, throttle bandwidth intensive workloads, reprioritise rogue traffic, and redirect suspicious activity for further analysis.

"Service providers are facing threats to the sustainability of their businesses and must reconsider their business models and their approaches to network design. Network intelligence is crucial for successful IP-based services and architectures,” said Ray Mota, CEO and principal analyst at ACG Research. “Brocade, a leading vendor enabling the New IP, is addressing this problem with its comprehensive and open SDN architecture. The Brocade Flow Optimiser SDN application is a prime example of a solution that helps IT and telecom managers to more effectively optimise their networks. Ultimately, this enables them to deliver a better overall user experience, implement cost controls, and enhance revenue initiatives.”

Brocade also announced the Brocade NetIron® OS 5.9 software, building on the continued advancement of SDN capabilities in the Brocade MLXe routers. Providing new OpenFlow features, this latest OS release leverages the industry-leading Brocade VersaScale™ programmable forwarding architecture. By using this architecture with SDN applications such as the Brocade Flow Optimiser, organisations can improve visibility over network traffic and simplify forwarding control.

“With the introduction of the Brocade Flow Optimiser, Brocade is taking a concrete step to help its customers maximise the value of software-driven networks and increase network performance by mitigating network attacks and enabling policy-based traffic engineering,” said Jason Nolet, senior vice president, Switching, Routing, and Analytics Products Group at Brocade. “Brocade is delivering on the merits of agile, New IP networks with a low-risk, highly innovative SDN solution.”

Brocade’s open SDN architecture is a low-risk and modular solution that consists of the Brocade Flow Optimiser application, Brocade SDN Controller, Brocade MLXe routers, and Brocade ICX® campus switches. This unique approach to SDN means organisations can now use standards-based protocols, such as OpenFlow, OpenDaylight-based SDN controllers, and open APIs for integration with third-party orchestration systems. With Brocade Hybrid Port technology, traditional forwarding and OpenFlow traffic are simultaneously supported on the same port. This allows organisations to start their journey to the New IP immediately, seamlessly introducing SDN into their existing networks while protecting current investments.

“As a strategic partner of the Academic Network at Sao Paulo (ANSP), Brocade helped us introduce and enable SDN in our network with innovations like Hybrid Port OpenFlow and the Brocade Flow Optimiser,” said Luis Fernandez Lopez, Chief Technical Officer at ANSP. “As a result, we have gained huge network efficiencies by making our network programmable and reducing the time to provision new services from days to minutes.”

Brocade Solution Features and Benefits
· Policy-based detection and management of Layer 2-4 traffic flows improves network efficiency and the customer experience:
· Proactive mitigation of volumetric Layer 2-4 traffic attacks prevents expensive network downtime and service interruption.
· Support for REST APIs provides ease of integration with third-party cloud orchestration systems.
· Seamless introduction of SDN into existing networks with Hybrid Port OpenFlow protects existing network investments.
· A simple, user-friendly Web-based GUI with dashboards provides real-time event logging and detailed traffic statistics.