AO strengthens network infra with Brocade solutions

AO Cloud has deployed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Brocade VDX 6740 Switches within its data centers to create single-layer 10 GbE fabrics.

Delivered by local Brocade partner, Connector Systems, the new infrastructure will enable AO Cloud to pioneer the country's first active-active cloud data centre based on Brocade solutions, a statement said.

The fabrics are automatically aware of all devices (servers, switches, appliances) within their domain, and AO Cloud can add and remove switches from any VCS fabric without manual configuration.

Virtual Machine (VM) network automation features are intrinsic to the fabric and are also hypervisor-agnostic, providing VM alignment capabilities that match the real-world needs of today's data centers, it said.

The overall Brocade solution has removed the need to manually reconfigure network infrastructure, simplifying network configuration and management, as well as streamlining the ongoing operations for AO Cloud. The company can now focus on deploying and managing cloud services for its clients with a hypervisor-agnostic network and a selection of VM technologies.

AO Cloud meets data sovereignty needs in keeping corporate data within New Zealand borders.

To extend VM awareness and mobility between data centers, AO Cloud has also deployed Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series high-performance routers that support Layer 2 VPN connections between sites.

In common with the Brocade VDX switches, the new routers feature Software-Defined Networking (SDN) capabilities based on the OpenFlow standard, providing greater programmatic control over the network.

"AO Cloud is differentiating its cloud services offering with a new network architecture we have branded 'convergent cloud.' Our plans always encompass fast compute and storage facilities that could talk to multiple production data centres, capable of isolating customer traffic in VLANs and producing an extremely secure environment," said Jeff Herbert, director, AO Cloud.

"For this we needed the highly scalable capabilities of Brocade Ethernet fabrics. We also wanted to provision the network for SDN capabilities to facilitate drag-and-drop capabilities for VLANs between data centres, and prepare to write our own SDN software to modify new connections as homogenous across the network. For this we needed an active-active data centre environment to host resilient managed services. It had to be Brocade," added Herbert.

 

"The automated fabric environment that AO Cloud has constructed provides a key technical benefit of allowing it to manage customer services, rather than focusing on managing infrastructure," said Gary Denman, senior director for Australia and New Zealand, Brocade, networking solutions provider.

"Not very long ago, the concept of virtual machine mobility between data centers was just a theory, but AO Cloud is now leveraging it to offer a range of services with strong value-add. I believe this is very much a sign of how the cloud will deliver business services in the future," he added.