PeakColo Aims for the Cloud With Brocade VCS Fabric Technology

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PeakColo Aims for the Cloud With Brocade VCS Fabric Technology

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Brocade Delivers Best Price/Performance Value and Significant ROI in Just 11 Months

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 25, 2012) - Cloud computing and colocation are two fast-growing networking trends, especially as more enterprises look to reduce costs, increase agility and focus on their core business competencies. Capitalizing on this opportunity, Denver-based PeakColo, a cloud-focused Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider, has completed the essential pieces of this puzzle by delivering public and private cloud services to its wide range of clients. The company did so with help from Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD), utilizing an Ethernet fabric built on Brocade^® VDX^® switches andVCS^® Fabric technology.

During the past few years, PeakColo has experienced significant growth with three data centers in Denver and one in Phoenix, Arizona. To add 13 microsites around the U.S., and to support the opening of its new data center in the United Kingdom, PeakColo needed a "bulletproof" infrastructure that could deliver secure and robust services to its clients.

The solution was a Brocade Ethernet fabric featuring Brocade VDX 6720 Switches, which have allowed PeakColo to reduce its cabling from a mix of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 1 GbE cables, to just two 10 GbE cables. This decrease in cabling has led to fewer headaches when managing a dense cloud computing environment. The company estimates it is saving approximately $20,000 annually on cabling, cable managers, switches, rack space and labor -- in addition to the power savings from using Brocade network equipment.

PeakColo acquired the equipment via Brocade Network Subscription to avoid initial capital expenditures and term commitments, and to protect itself from product obsolescence. 

"We acquired equipment for the future, and as our business grows and our clients consume more bandwidth, Brocade will allow us to scale up to meet increased demand," said John Palley, chief operating officer for PeakColo. "Brocade is an essential component in what we've designed, built and deployed for our infrastructure-as-a-service model."

Brocade replaced the incumbent hardware in the core of PeakColo's network; deploying Brocade VDX 6720 Switches at all four data centers. These switches use Brocade VCS Fabric technology, which provides an intelligent foundation for building data center Ethernet fabrics and streamlines the transition to virtualization and cloud computing.

"We wanted a network infrastructure that could accommodate our explosive growth and ever-increasing client demands, while providing that in a secure, high-performance environment," said Palley. "We looked at what we needed to support our business and our clients into the future, and Brocade provided that with minimum disruption and maximum capabilities. Brocade is known for its ability to move high volumes of data in a high-bandwidth, secure environment. This has enabled us to see a return on investment in just 11 months."

"Standardizing on Brocade shows we're picking best-of-breed technology and the best price/ performance value," said Luke Norris, chief executive officer, PeakColo. "The comprehensive Brocade Ethernet fabric strategy, based on TRILL, is extremely valuable to PeakColo. By transitioning to a cloud-optimized network built on Brocade VCS Fabric technology, we are able to expand much more rapidly and respond to support issues faster and more predictably than environments using the legacy Spanning Tree Protocol."

PeakColo is also one of the first cloud infrastructure companies in North America to achieve the VMware vCloud Powered designation -- given to qualifying members of the VMware Service Provider Program -- for its cloud service offerings.

What Is an Ethernet Fabric?

Compared to classic hierarchical Ethernet, Ethernet fabrics provide higher levels of performance, utilization, availability and simplicity. Moreover, they have the following characteristics:

• Flatter: Ethernet fabrics are self-aggregating, enabling a flatter network.
• Intelligent: Switches in the fabric know about each other and all connected devices.
• Scalable: All paths are available to help ensure high performance and reliability.
• Efficient: Traffic automatically travels along the shortest path.
• Simple: The fabric is managed as a single logical entity.

Additional Assets:

Case study: (PeakColoSuccessStory)

Video: (The Cube - Brocade Tech Day - Luke Norris PeakColo)

Tags: PeakColo, Ethernet Fabric, Brocade, VDX, VCS, Brocade Network Subscription

About Brocade

Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) networking solutions help the world's leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)