Brocade, a technology company specialising in data and storage networking products, has reinforced its commitment to helping customers accelerate their journey to open and agile software-defined networking (SDN) by offering a free one-year licence for its recently released Brocade Vyatta Controller.

Available as a free download since January 27, the Brocade Vyatta Controller allows enterprises and service providers to explore and vet their SDN use cases without investing in expensive and time-consuming hardware acquisitions or software integrations.

The free licence provides management of up to five physical or virtual network nodes in a non-production environment and includes 60 days of free 24x7 worldwide access to the world-class Brocade Technical Assistance Centre.

The industry’s transition to the New IP requires an open, software-driven strategy in order to maximise the benefits of Big Data, cloud, mobile and social initiatives. An open-source SDN solution provides greater innovation, interoperability and choice while eliminating costly vendor lock-in.

According to GigaOm Research, a majority of organisations interested in open-source SDN want to get the technology from a commercial provider to lower their adoption risks and ensure that they receive reliable support—a key part of the Brocade approach to open-source SDN, it added.

To promote the development of innovative network applications, Brocade also announced the Brocade Vyatta Controller Developer Edition, which provides a comprehensive set of tools—including templates, libraries, and testing environments—to help developers quickly write and test SDN applications and easily deploy them into service.

The Brocade Vyatta Controller is free of proprietary extensions, so developers can be assured that their applications will run on any other OpenDaylight-based controller. In addition, developers retain full intellectual property rights to the applications they build.

With SDN being a new frontier for both developers and users, new Brocade services will help organisations transition to SDN as seamlessly as possible. These services include the following:
Brocade Technical Support provides a single-source support team for ongoing maintenance, deployment guidance and problem resolution for the entire Brocade Vyatta Controller environment.

Designated development experts are also available to help resolve issues, whether developers are writing simple automation scripts or creating complex services applications.
Brocade Certified Education provides the conceptual foundation and skills that IT organizations need to adopt SDN successfully, including instructor-led courses for network engineers who want to create custom applications that interact with the Brocade Vyatta Controller.

Brocade Professional Services provides consulting expertise to assist with SDN implementation and development efforts. Subject matter experts can work directly with users and developers to create the right environment ensuring applications perform as expected.

The online community provides an independent, community-based site dedicated to fostering practical exploration of the many facets of open-source networking for operators and developers. Through the community, customers can download the Brocade Vyatta Controller; access community forums, documentation and the Brocade Technical Assistance Centre; share use cases, tutorials and code samples as well as learn about the latest developments in networking-related open-source projects.

“Today’s announcement further distinguishes Brocade in our deep commitment to helping customers accelerate their transition to the New IP by delivering a truly open SDN solution based on the Brocade Vyatta Controller,” said Kelly Herrell, senior vice president and general manager, Software Networking, Brocade.

“Our free licence model, new services that cater to both users and developers, as well as ongoing allegiance to OpenDaylight, not only remove significant barriers to implementing SDN solutions but also accelerate the time from proof-of-concept to production,” he added.

The Brocade Vyatta Controller is a fully tested, documented and quality-assured edition of the OpenDaylight platform, a community-led, open framework for fostering innovation and creating a more transparent approach to SDN.

Unlike other vendors, Brocade has committed to contributing any enhancements made to the Brocade Vyatta Controller back to the community to ensure interoperability with other OpenDaylight-based controllers on an ongoing basis. As a result, new features, functions and enhancements are incorporated on a frequent cadence, as opposed to traditional bi- or triennial management software updates. Additional unique features of the Brocade Vyatta Controller include:
Platform-independent, host OS- and hypervisor-agnostic design to allow management of physical and virtual networking platforms from multiple vendors.

“We know organisations want programmable networks and Brocade is clearing a path for those who want SDN today,” said Neela Jacques, executive director, OpenDaylight.

“From a health care provider who needs to customise network operations to a campus organisation that wants faster provisioning, there are countless use cases for SDN and many we haven't even thought of yet. With OpenDaylight at the core, Brocade can evolve its solution quickly to adapt to customer needs.”

All products and services are available today. The production licence for the Brocade Vyatta Controller is priced at $100 per attached node per year including support. – TradeArabia News Service