Softbank streamlines data center operations with Brocade’s fabric-based switches

BENGALURU: Japanese telecommunication service provider SoftBank Corp is streamlining its data center operations by deploying Brocade VDX Switches to provide Ethernet fabrics as part of the company's group-wide common service infrastructure network. The new infrastructure will greatly reduce complexity and the cost of network operations within SoftBank's data centers, giving the company greater agility to pursue new growth opportunities in Over-The-Top (OTT) services.

SoftBank has a strong track record of using data center virtualization to efficiently and cost-effectively support the back-end systems that support the company's internal applications and external services. However, as these applications and service have increased in number and scale, SoftBank was beginning to experience significant network operational issues stemming from the complexity of the existing infrastructure. As a result, the company decided to revamp its common service infrastructure network using highly open, best-in-class components.

“Increased data center agility is critical to realizing the company's strategy of delivering new OTT services to drive growth,” said Takenobu Yamane, manager of system infrastructure and service platform, SoftBank Corp. “Deployment of Brocade VDX switches as part of the new common service infrastructure network gives our data centers a more flexible and automated foundation, supporting a much more streamlined and cost-effective operational model that is capable of responding rapidly to new demands.”

The BROCADE VDX 6740 and 6740-T switches, deployed in three key SoftBank data centers, create an elastic, self-forming, and self-healing Ethernet fabric with Brocade VCS Logical Chassis functionality enabling the entire fabric to be managed as a single switch. The fabric-based architecture simplifies and automates virtual machine mobility and management within the data centers, which is ideal for supporting cloud data center operations. This enables SoftBank to increase the flexibility and responsiveness of its data center and makes it easy to scale the infrastructure to meet current demands as well as future requirements.

Having already deployed more than 70 Brocade VDX switches, SoftBank is now considering adding more of the Ethernet fabric devices to expand its common service infrastructure network. With continued support from Brocade the telco is also exploring ways to further automate its data center operations, leveraging Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and other programmatic tools to enable a truly on-demand data center.