Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

is an American technology company specializ

ing in data and storage networking products. Originally known for its leadership
in Fibre Channel storage networks, the company has expanded its focus to includ
e a wide range of products for New IP and Third platform technologies. Offerings
now include routers and switches optimized for data center, campus and carrier
environments, IP and Fibre Channel storage network fabrics; Network Functions Vi
rtualization (NFV) and Software-defined networking (SDN) solutions such as a com
mercial edition of the OpenDaylight Project SDN Controller; and network manageme
nt software that spans physical and virtual devices.
Contents [hide]
1
History
2
Incorporation and IPO
3
Products
3.1
Fibre Channel
3.1.1 SAN ASICs
3.2
SAN products
3.3
Legacy products
3.4
Ethernet switches and routers
3.5
Software
4
Awards and recognition
5
Acquisitions
6
Competition
7
Legal issues
8
See also
9
References
10
External links
History[edit]
Brocade was founded in August 1995, by Seth Neiman (a venture capitalist, a form
er executive from Sun Microsystems and a professional auto racer), Kumar Malaval
li (a co-author of the Fibre Channel specification) and Paul R. Bonderson (a for
mer executive from Intel Corporation and Sun Microsystems). Neiman became the fi
rst CEO of the company.
The company's first product, SilkWorm, which was a Fibre Channel Switch, was rel
eased in early 1997. A second generation of switches was announced in 1999.[3]
On January 14, 2013, Brocade named Lloyd Carney as new chief executive Officer.[
4]
Incorporation and IPO[edit]
Brocade was incorporated on May 14, 1998, in Delaware. On May 25, 1999, the comp
any went public at a split-adjusted price of $4.75. On initial public offering (
IPO), the company offered 3,250,000 shares, with an additional 487,500 shares of
fered to the underwriters to cover over-allotments. The top three underwriters (
based on number of shares) for Brocade's IPO were, in order, Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter, BT Alex.Brown, and Dain Rauscher Wessels.
Brocade stock trades in the National Market System of the NASDAQ GS stock market
under the ticker symbol BRCD.
Products[edit]
Brocade hardware products include Fibre Channel SAN directors and switches; ultr
a-low-latency data center switches; Ethernet fabrics, Federal and enterprise Eth
ernet (LAN/WLAN) switches; WAN (Internet) routers; application delivery controll
ers (load balancers); Fibre Channel fabric extension switches; embedded Fibre Ch
annel and Ethernet switch blades; Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs); conver
ged Fibre Channel/Ethernet network adapters (CNAs), and Ethernet transceivers. O
ther hardware solutions from Brocade support common protocols including iSCSI, F
CIP, GigE, FICON, FCoE, DCB/CEE, and Layer 4-7 networking protocols.[citation ne

eded]
Brocade also sells software-based networking devices including technology for SD
N, Network virtualization, virtual routers, virtual firewalls, virtual Applicati
on Delivery Controllers (load balancers), network security appliances and VPNs t
hrough its wholly owned subsidiary, Vyatta.
Fibre Channel[edit]
Brocade's first Fibre Channel switch SilkWorm 1000 (SW1000) (released in 1997) w
as based on the "Stitch" ASIC and their own VxWorks-based firmware (Fabric OS or
FOS). SilkWorm eventually came to be a long-lived marketing designation for an
entire line of products, with the first product being retro-named the SilkWorm 1
000 (SW1000) to distinguish it from subsequent platforms. Bruce Bergman was the
CEO during most of this period. Product names were generally puns on various kin
ds of woven fabric, since a switched Fibre Channel network is also called a "fab
ric".
In 1998, Gregory Reyes joined the company as CEO. In 2001, Brocade released the
SilkWorm 6400, which was designated a "director" similarly[5] to IBM ESCON direc
tors already well-established[6] in the mainframe computer market. The term "dir
ector" became universally used for more expensive FC switches.[7]
From 2001 to 2003, Brocade released switches based on its third generation ASIC,
"BLOOM" (Big LOOM). BLOOM introduced increased throughput of 2 Gbit/s instead o
f 1 Gbit/s. Brocade integrated BLOOM into its first "pure" director, the SilkWor
m 12000, in April 2002. The director offered up to 128 ports in two 64-port pseu
do-switches (domains). The 12000 represented several internal architecture and t
echnical changes besides the new ASIC: it had an upgraded control processor arch
itecture (Intel i960 moved to PowerPC 405GP), changed the embedded operating sys
tem (FOS v4.0 migrated from Wind River Systems VxWorks to MontaVista Linux), and
introduced the backplane architecture (hierarchical PCI buses with replaceable
blades attached to a backplane). The Bloom ASIC also introduced a notable capabi
lity of frame-level Fibre Channel trunking, which provided high throughput with
load balancing across multiple cables. It needed to be implemented in the ASIC h
ardware to ensure in-order delivery of frames. Also hot firmware upgrade was int
roduced with FOS v4.1 in October 2003.
At the time, Brocade's main rival, McDATA, held over 90% market share in directo
r segment, owing to a strong position first in the ESCON market, and then in the
FICON market. The SilkWorm 12000 director gained over one-third of the market s
hare after its release in 2002. Brocade added mainframe customers with FICON and
FICON CUP support on the SilkWorm 12000.[8] In 2003, the SilkWorm 12000 was nam
ed Storage Product of the Year by Computing.[8]
In 2004, the BLOOM II improved on the previous ASIC design by reducing its power
consumption and die size, while maintaining 2 Gbit/s technology. It powered Bro
cade s second generation director, the SilkWorm 24000. Still a 128 port design, it
was the first one which could operate as a single 128-port switch (a single dom
ain). The new director also used approximately two thirds less power than its pr
edecessor. Brocade introduced also its first multiprotocol Fibre Channel router,
the SilkWorm 7420. Brocade also acquired Rhapsody Networks (a SAN virtualizatio
n startup company). This was also the time frame in which Brocade first entered
into the embedded switch market, delivering multiple switches physically integra
ted into other vendors' hardware, such as storage controllers and blade server c
hassis.[citation needed]
As of March 2009, Brocade had sold over 10 million SAN switch ports with over 44
,000 directors installed, and held 75.5% of the overall SAN switch market (Dell'
Oro Group, 1Q09 SAN Report).[citation needed]

In Late 2010 Brocade introduced Virtual Cluster Switching (VCS) on the VDX[9] ul
tra-low-latency data center switch product line. These are DCB/CEE- and TRILL-ba
sed switches, eliminating the need for Spanning Tree Protocol, and supporting mu
lti-hop Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and self-trunking.[citation needed]
In May 2011,[10] Brocade launched the industry's first "Gen 5 Fibre Channel" (16
Gbit/s) SAN platform family including the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone, 6510 switc
h and 1860 Fabric Adapter. The Brocade DCX 8510 is available in 8-slot or 4-slot
chassis models supporting up to 384 16 Gbit/s ports at line-rate speeds and 8.2
terabits per second (Tbit/s) of chassis bandwidth. It includes optical UltraSca
le inter-chassis links (ICLs) which simplify scale-out design for multi-chassis
architectures. The Brocade 6510 switch is a 48-port 16 Gbit/s switch designed fo
r virtualized applications and high-performance storage including SSD arrays. Br
ocade also introduced the 1860 Fabric Adapter, the industry's first adapter whic
h includes AnyIO 16 Gbit/s FC HBA, 10GbE CNA, and 10GbE NIC functionality on the
same card.
In April 2012, Brocade launched the 6505 switch (24-port) entry-level switch.
In March 2013, Brocade launched the 6520 96-port Gen 5 Fibre Channel high-densit
y switch and announced Brocade Fabric Vision technology. Brocade Fabric Vision t
echnology introduces advanced diagnostics, monitoring, and management capabiliti
es through a combination of ASIC, FOS, and Brocade Network Advisor. New features
include Brocade Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS) for fabric-wide thr
eshold configuration and monitoring and Brocade Flow Vision for data flow monito
ring and analysis.
SAN ASICs[edit]
Brocade designs its Fibre Channel ASICs for performing switching functions in it
s SAN switches.
The first family of SAN switches, the SilkWorm 1000, released in 1997, were base
d on the first generation of Brocade ASICs, called Stitch. The SilkWorm 6400 ser
ies of SAN Director class switches and SilkWorm 2400/2800 switches, released in
1999, were based on the second generation of Brocade ASICs, called LOOM. The Sil
kWorm 12000/24000 SAN Directors and SilkWorm 3200/3800/3850 SAN switches, releas
ed in 2001, were based on the third and fourth generation of Brocade ASICs calle
d BLOOM and BLOOM-II.
The fifth generation of ASICs, called Condor and Goldeneye (scaled-down Condor),
powered the SilkWorm 48/000 series of Directors and port blades, FR4-18i Extens
ion Blade, and SilkWorm 200E/4100/4900/7500 series of switches respectively. The
se products were released into the market in 2004. The sixth generation of Broca
de ASICs (designed in 2008) are called Condor 2 and Goldeneye 2. Condor 2 suppor
ts 40 ports of 8 Gbit/s per ASIC and Goldeneye 2 supports 32 ports of 8 Gbit/s.
These ASICs are used in the DCX Backbone Family of chassis and port blades, FS818 Encryption Blade, FX8-24 Extension Blade, and 300/5100/5300/7800/Encryption s
witches. The 7th generation of Brocade ASICs are Condor 3. Condor 3 supports 48
ports of 16 Gbit/s per ASIC. These ASICs are used in the DCX 8510 Backbone Famil
y and port blades, and the 6505/6510/6520 switches. The initial 16 Gbit/s produc
t line (DCX 8510-8, DCX 8510-4, 6510 48-port switch, and 1860 Fabric Adapter) wa
s originally launched in 2011. The 6505 24-port switch was launched in May 2012.
The 6520 96-port switch was launched in March 2013.
SAN products[edit]
Brocade name
Brocade
switch
type
Max. port
data rate (Gbit/s)
Max