Brocade Fabric Innovates High-Performance Data Centre for AO Cloud LTD Platform

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND--(Marketwired - Aug 18, 2014) -  AO Cloud Ltd (AO Cloud) has created a new network architecture for cloud platform services with "convergent cloud" solutions based on Brocade® VCS® Fabric technology. With its low-latency, high-availability onshore hosting environment, AO Cloud meets data sovereignty needs in keeping corporate data within New Zealand borders. 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.

Within its data centres AO Cloud has deployed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Brocade VDX 6740 Switches, featuring VCS Fabric technology, to create single-layer 10 GbE fabrics. 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 centres.

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, which is a strategic benefit in meeting individual client cloud services requirements.

To extend VM awareness and mobility between data centres, 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 Ltd.