A Brocade Value-Added Distributor’s Perspective: Looking to the Future at the Network Edge

At WAV (a Brocade Value-Added Distributor), our product line and our vision are neatly aligned with Brocade’s vision for the New IP. As we rollout their ICX switches (and other products), we’re helping our VARs transition their businesses (and their customer’s businesses) to support modern, software-driven network infrastructure projects that support Third Platform technologies.

For VARs, we know that change is hard and we know that such an evolution can seem a daunting task. So, in partnership with Brocade, we recommend everyone take a deep dive into their Five Step Network Innovation Model – a framework that helps your customers plan their New IP journey and network transformation. Brocade designed the model to ensure a logical adoption of network technologies, with each step building on the foundation created in the preceding stage. As a Brocade Value-Added Distributor, WAV’s portfolio of value-added solutions provides all the tools you’ll need.

In a nutshell, here’s Brocade’s Five Step Network Innovation Model:

1. Audit existing technology to ensure that it’s aligned with organizational goals and network priorities, and ready to work with the Brocade portfolio.
2. Implement automation that accelerates application delivery and reduces network downtime though an optimized cloud.
3. Increase agility by creating a service-orientated, software-enabled IT environment that enables real-time response to market change.
4. Take advantage of intelligent services and analytics to gain the insights that help you speed change, reduce risk, and deliver innovation.
5. Understand that business success depends on network modernization and innovation, and the New IP delivers both by leveraging revolutionary advances in software-driven networking.

Hyperscale cloud providers have been doing all of these things for years. They’ve built a New IP architecture based on these attributes, using their own proprietary infrastructure. Brocade’s five-step model will help your clients deploy a similar architecture, without the cost and overhead of designing and building an infrastructure from the ground up.

As your organization evolves and begins to search for new projects with the New IP infrastructure, expect to find yourself managing networks that are free from traditional data center and network edge definitions. You, your customers, and your partners will be at the center of an ecosystem of resources from trusted open source communities, traditional vendors, and innovative start-ups. You’ll be able to choose where to host services based on business rules instead of vendor limits. You’ll be able to support your users and your customers with private overlay networks that offer unprecedented opportunities for customization. And the entire infrastructure will be secure. Because in the New IP, security can be built in instead of bolted on.

As a Brocade Value-Added Distributor, we at WAV believe our solutions and services for VARs will help you break the status quo.  For more information, get in touch with WAV today and let us show you how Brocade can help you profit.