Brocade released a series of hardware and software products Tuesday as a continuation of its software-defined-networking strategy for the data center market.

Products released cover virtual routing, cloud application delivery, 40Gigabit Ethernet technology for network fabrics and integration of physical Brocade switches with the open-source cloud-infrastructure framework OpenStack.

New vRouter release and virtual app delivery controller

In the latest release of its virtual router Vyatta (release 6.6), Brocade had added support for multicast routing and Dynamics Multipoint VPN, two technologies the company says are critical for large enterprises and providers of cloud services.

The vRouter technology enables users to deploy and configure multi-tier networks on demand. Vyatta is platform- and hypervisor-agnostic, and customers have deployed it in a variety of private- and public-cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services.

It supports all major hypervisors: VMware, Microsoft, Citrix and Red Hat.

Brocade's new virtual application delivery controller is made to speed up resource deployment for applications running in the cloud. It provides application-delivery service provisioning, application management API for third-party orchestration and automation tools and orchestration of the application-delivery network tier, among other features.

The company has also made some enhancements to the Application Resource Broker, which automates roll-out of new services.

Bringing 40GbE to software-defined networking

On the physical side, Brocade's new four-port 40GbE MLXe module provides wire-speed performance and seamless integration with the VCS fabric technology. This enables an end-to-end multi-tenant 40GbE solution for data centers.

Smaller data centers plugged into carrier Ethernet networks can use new versions of the vendor's compact NetIron CER routers, with up to four 10GbE ports each. The company also announced new NetIron CES switches to complement the routers.

Brocade has updated its NetIron software to enhance routing and software-defined-networking capabilities to support OpenFlow Hybrid Port Mode. This means, the software now supports simultaneous deployments of OpenFlow and traditional routing on the same port.

OpenStack part of Brocade's fabric play

The Brocade VCS fabric plugin provides on-demand provisioning capabilities for the vendor's VDX switches in OpenStack environments. The latest release of the open-source cloud-orchestration framework, called Grizzly, includes the plugin.

As part of OpenStack, it expands what Brocade's VCS Fabric technology can do, as it combines the fabric's network automation, efficiency and elasticity attributes with ease of provisioning OpenStack provides, Brocade said.

John Igoe, VP of private cloud at Rackspace, said the hosting company has included Brocade's technology in its OpenStack-based private-cloud reference architecture. “The benefit of deploying a private or public cloud built on OpenStack is that it gives the customer the utmost level of flexibility and control when provisioning essential components within an open cloud architecture,” he said.

Rackspace engineers were one of the key driving forces behind the OpenStack project.

Brocade has also extended its involvement in the open-source project by taking the helm of a project to develop a Fibre Channel blueprint for storage networking. The company has provided a framework for zone management in Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks.

The Silicon Valley networking company is deeply involved in the OpenStack community to make sure its data center technologies are fully orchestrated by the framework. OpenStack has become a major force in the world of cloud infrastructure, providing a cloud alternative to services by companies like Amazon and Microsoft, who dominate the market with proprietary technologies.

Brocade has also partnered with companies that offer distributions of OpenStack, including Rackspace, Red Hat and Piston Cloud.