Brocade has expanded Effortless Network strategy, enabled by the company's HyperEdge architecture. Today, the company announced scale-out networking for the Brocade ICX 7750-based distributed chassis, the new Brocade ICX 7450 stackable switch, and OpenFlow 1.3 support for campus software-defined networking (SDN) applications.

Siva Valiappan, senior director or product management for campus at Brocade, says the expanded campus portfolio touches on three key areas for Brocade:

• Scale-out networking: the ability to use fixed configuration switches as a chassis alternative in all parts of the network, not just the edge.
• SDN: Support of OpenFlow 1.0 and 1.3, SDN is integral to the ICX family of products. Brocade also claims to offer the industry's best OpenFlow implementation for a campus environment.
• Joint Brocade-Aruba roadmap: The collaboration between Brocade and Aruba allows for a single-pane-of-glass network management, enabled by Brocade Network Advisor and Aruba Airwave. Policy management and unified security policies for wired and wireless users is also provided by Aruba ClearPass and Brocade's Ethernet switch software.

Valiappan noted that campus network needs are changing, leaving the ways of legacy networks behind. With the new features included in Brocade's expansion, networks can meet the demands as their requirements evolve, and for some, move toward SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) adoption.

As businesses continue to embrace this progression, Brocade wants to be at the forefront, especially at the campus level. "Higher education environments have been spearheading adoption of OpenFlow due to the value of having a programmatic software-defined infrastructure and its benefit to research institutions," said Valiappan in an email to SDxCentral. "Brocade has seen remarkable success and adoption of our MLX routing platforms in these environments due to our early adoption and leadership in OpenFlow."

In addition to supporting OpenFlow 1.3, Brocade's Effortless Network will also include the Brocade OpenFlow Hybrid Port Mode, as well as support for the OpenDaylight-based Brocade Vyatta Controller.

The new switches are already shipping and will be generally available later this month, with the list price for the Brocade ICX 7450 Switch starting at $3,905.