As organizations drive to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructures to reduce costs, and manage risk, networking is pivotal to success. Optimizing network performance, availability, adaptability, security, and cost is essential to achieving the maximum benefit from your infrastructure. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we address the requirements: Expertise to plan and design networks with holistic consideration of servers, storage, application performance and manageability Networking solutions that enable investment protection with performance and cost options that match your environment Technology and expertise to design and implement and manage network security and resiliency Robust network management software for integrated, simplified management that lowers operating costs of complex networks IBM and Brocade have entered into an agreement to provide expanded network technology choices with the new IBM b-type Ethernet Switches and Routers, to provide an integrated end-to-end resiliency and security framework. Combined with the IBM vast data center design experience and the Brocade networking expertise, this portfolio represents the ideal convergence of strength and intelligence. For organizations striving to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructure, such a combination can help you reduce costs, manage risks, and prepare for the future. This book is meant to be used along with "IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction," SG24-7786.

As organizations drive to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructures to reduce costs, and manage risk, networking is pivotal to success. Optimizing network performance, availability, adaptability, security, and cost is essential to achieving the maximum benefit from your infrastructure. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we address these requirements: Expertise to plan and design networks with holistic consideration of servers, storage, application performance, and manageability Networking solutions that enable investment protection with performance and cost options that match your environment Technology and expertise to design and implement and manage network security and resiliency Robust network management software for integrated, simplified management that lowers operating costs of complex networks IBM and Brocade have entered into an agreement to provide expanded network technology choices with the new IBM b-type Ethernet Switches and Routers, to provide an integrated end-to-end resiliency and security framework. Combined with the IBM vast data center design experience and the Brocade networking expertise, this portfolio represents the ideal convergence of strength and intelligence. For organizations striving to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructure, such a combination can help you reduce costs, manage risks, and prepare for the future. This book is meant to be used along with "IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Product Introduction and Initial Setup," SG24-7785.

As organizations drive to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructures to reduce costs, and manage risk, networking is pivotal to success. Optimizing network performance, availability, adaptability, security, and cost is essential to achieving the maximum benefit from your infrastructure. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we address the requirements: Expertise to plan and design networks with holistic consideration of servers, storage, application performance and manageability Networking solutions that enable investment protection with performance and cost options that match your environment Technology and expertise to design and implement and manage network security and resiliency Robust network management software for integrated, simplified management that lowers operating costs of complex networks IBM and Brocade have entered into an agreement to provide expanded network technology choices with the new IBM b-type Ethernet Switches and Routers, to provide an integrated end-to-end resiliency and security framework. Combined with the IBM vast data center design experience and the Brocade networking expertise, this portfolio represents the ideal convergence of strength and intelligence. For organizations striving to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructure, such a combination can help you reduce costs, manage risks, and prepare for the future. This book is meant to be used along with "IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction," SG24-7786.

The enterprise data center has evolved dramatically in recent years. It has moved from a model that placed multiple data centers closer to users to a more centralized dynamic model. The factors influencing this evolution are varied but can mostly be attributed to regulatory, service level improvement, cost savings, and manageability. Multiple legal issues regarding the security of data housed in the data center have placed security requirements at the forefront of data center architecture. As the cost to operate data centers has increased, architectures have moved towards consolidation of servers and applications in order to better utilize assets and reduce "server sprawl." The more diverse and distributed the data center environment becomes, the more manageability becomes an issue. These factors have led to a trend of data center consolidation and resources on demand using technologies such as virtualization, higher WAN bandwidth technologies, and newer management technologies. The intended audience of this book is network architects and network administrators. In this IBM® Redbooks® publication we discuss the following topics: The current state of the data center network The business drivers making the case for change The unique capabilities and network requirements of system platforms The impact of server and storage consolidation on the data center network The functional overview of the main data center network virtualization and consolidation technologies The new data center network design landscape

The rapid spread and adoption of production storage area networks (SANs) has fueled the need for multiprotocol routers. The routers provide improved scalability, security, and manageability by enabling devices in separate SAN fabrics to communicate without merging fabrics into a single, large SAN fabric. This capability enables clients to initially deploy separate SAN solutions at the departmental and data center levels. Then, clients can consolidate these separate solutions into large enterprise SAN solutions as their experience and requirements grow and change. Alternatively, multiprotocol routers can help to connect existing enterprise SANs for a variety of reasons. For instance, the introduction of Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) provides for the connection of low-end, low-cost hosts to enterprise SANs. The use of an Internet Protocol (IP) in the Fibre Channel (FC) environment provides for resource consolidation and disaster recovery planning over long distances. And the use of FC-FC routing services provides connectivity between two or more fabrics without having to merge them into a single SAN. This IBM® Redbooks® publication targets storage network administrators, system designers, architects, and IT professionals who sell, design, or administer SANs. It introduces you to products, concepts, and technology in the IBM System StorageTM SAN Routing portfolio, which is based on Brocade products and technology. This book shows the features of these products and examples of how you can deploy and use them.