Brocade promises reduced latency and improved connectivity with ServerIron switch

Brocade has announced a new application delivery switch designed to improve datacentre connectivity by allowing companies to host copper and fibre connections on a single device.

The ServerIron ADX 1000F offers up to 50 per cent power savings and improved data transmission reliability and security, according to Brocade, and is ideally suited to dedicated cloud providers, financial organisations and government bodies.

The switch is designed to help companies migrate from old copper connections to fibre to take advantage of improved performance and security, and extended range.

Eric van Gend, ADX product specialist at Brocade, told V3 that customers and datacentre firms need to ensure that applications hosted remotely do not suffer from latency.

"Many firms tell us that they can lose millions of dollars of revenue if their site suffers latency from the datacentre, while latency is a huge frustration for firms trying to access key corporate applications," he said.

"The need to do things as quickly as possible is paramount, and the ADX 1000F is part of our strategy to help ensure that end users of applications and web sites do not suffer from slow connections." 

Van Gend added that increased distances between the data and applications hosting site and where businesses are based means that support for fibre and copper networks is vital.

"We are seeing an increasing use of fibre connections across the world. Even in Africa fibre is now being rolled out," he said.

"We can't expect firms to move across to fibre instantly but, by offering copper connectivity, we can support this transition."

The ADX 1000F costs $14,995, which van Gend said is lower than many rival devices on the market, and will be available from the end of September. The firm has been testing the product with some of its long-standing US customers.

The switch is part of an overall strategy from Brocade to meet the new era of datacentre-based applications, after the launch of the 6710 and 6730 in August designed to support transmission rates of up to 10Gbit/s.