Brocade intros FME for MS environs

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Brocade, data center networking solutions provider, has announced a product aimed at simplifying file management in Microsoft Windows environments.

The Brocade File Management Engine (FME) is a file virtualization appliance designed to automate the intelligent movement and placement of file data. The product’s approach to policy-based file migration helps customers reduce storage costs, eliminate inefficient manual processes, and minimize IT downtime due to file data migrations.

In today’s IT environments, more files are being created, copied, accessed, and stored than ever before. Additionally, many of these files are larger in size, driven by the increasing use of audio, video, image, and streaming media. As a result, IT organizations increasingly face the tradeoffs of more downtime and longer disruptions as they migrate and move files to add capacity, improve performance, or optimize resources. In many cases, these migrations are limited to costly weekend operations in order to avoid the risk of downtime during production hours.    

To help organizations overcome those challenges, Brocade FME embeds policy-driven automation and centralized control of file movement—allowing for non-disruptive migration and placement of data, without downtime. The product provides several new and innovative features to the market, including:

Non-disruptive, transparent open file migration. Brocade FME enables non-disruptive file movement that helps IT administrators migrate open or locked files, even while users are accessing or writing to those files. This combination of intelligent file movement with continued uptime and access enables organizations to remain productive during file data migrations.

Policy-based file placement. Brocade FME automates the classification and placement of file data within a tiered storage infrastructure—optimizing storage costs and utilization, while simplifying management. 

Integration with Microsoft Windows environments. Brocade FME leverages native Microsoft Windows technologies, including Active Directory, Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS), and Distributed File System (DFS). As a result of tight integration with these Windows technologies, the product is optimized for performance in Windows file serving environments, and seamlessly leverages established Windows management, security, and network resources.

Fast, easy deployment and operation. The implementation of Brocade FME requires no changes to client access, networks, or storage. Moreover, there are no desktop, server, or storage agents to deploy or manage when implementing Brocade FME—making it simpler and easier to deploy than other solutions available today.

In addition, Brocade FME complements the strategic Brocade Data Center Fabric (DCF) architecture, helping organizations make their file data infrastructure more efficient, reliable, and adaptable to change.

“Business-critical file data is consuming more storage resources and IT management cycles, so IT staffs need new solutions that help them streamline and automate file management,” said Richard Villars, Vice President, Storage Systems Research at IDC. “Solutions like Brocade FME allow organizations to centralize file management and automate manual, time-consuming processes, leading to better information access, greater operational flexibility, and improved IT management efficiency.”