Based on Brocade's ServerIron ADX application delivery controllers and Blue Coat's CacheFlow 5000 appliances, the system proactively monitors bandwidth consumption and network health.
Brocade and Blue Coast Systems jointly announced an appliance to proactively
monitor the virtual health of an enterprise network on Oct. 13. The system's
monitoring capabilities are specific to Web caching, the companies said in a
statement.
The network health monitoring product consists of
Brocade's
ServerIron ADX application delivery controllers as an intelligent front end
to Blue Coat's
CacheFlow
5000 appliances, Blue Coat said. The Brocade ADCs can direct all inbound
subscriber requests to optimize performance.
With the explosion of rich media content, such as large data files and
online video, telecommunications carriers and service providers need to manage
bandwidth
demand. The biggest challenge, however, is ensuring that the quality and
speed of the media content, such as
streaming
video, remain high without slowing down or disrupting other applications
running on the same network.
"Building on our long-standing partnership, we created a joint solution
that enables service providers to maximize their network application
efficiency, reduce infrastructure costs and proactively address spikes in
network traffic patterns, while protecting customers' investments for future
scalability and growth," said Bob Braham, vice president of Brocade's
Integrated Marketing.
The integrated system monitors network health proactively against traffic
fluctuations. The combined product creates a buffer around the network to
defend against unpredicted traffic spikes that occur online or because of a
surge in interest for specific content. Spikes are often observed for certain
sports or political coverage and major news events.
Service providers can reduce bandwidth usage by up to 50 percent of Web
traffic, the company said.
Working together,
Brocade
and Blue Coat have rolled out a simplified and unified system that distributes
network traffic within a Blue Coat cache farm. The system simultaneously
monitors the network load and each Blue Coat appliance's available capacity and
traffic patterns, the company said. If the ADC
detects a problem in CacheFlow, it redirects traffic.
Each system helps boost network efficiency and provide non-stop networking.
For Web caching applications that focus on bandwidth savings, this will be
critical to enhancing the end user's Web experience.
"Proactive health monitoring is essential as Web caching becomes an
increasingly critical component of a carrier's infrastructure," said
Darrell Long, vice president and general manager of Blue Coat's CacheFlow
Business unit.
While the companies have worked together for years and have made significant
investment in each other's technologies, this is the first joint product
arising from the partnership. They have invested in Brocade's ServerIron
switches and Blue Coat's CacheFlow boxes to reduce infrastructure costs and
bandwidth consumption.
"The joint development between Brocade and Blue Coat represents a
significant leap forward in how core Web infrastructure, such as switching and
caching, is managed," said Braham.
The updates to ServerIronx ADX and
CacheFlow 5000 appliances are available immediately as a software update, said
Jeff Brainard, Blue Coat's director of Service Provider Products. Existing
customers for the Brocade switch and Blue Coat appliance can access the new
network health monitoring features by simply updating their hardware. New
customers will work with the companies' channel partners, according to
Brainard.
"With the industry's first integrated switching and caching solution
for health monitoring, we can raise the level of reliability and scalability
available to carriers, help deliver an improved Web user experience and
significantly reduce bandwidth consumption," said Long.
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