Brocade unites IPv4 and IPv6

Brocade this week unveiled software for its application acceleration switches that enables them to function as gateways between existing IPv4 networks and new ones built on IPv6. 

This gateway functionality allows Brocade ServerIron customers to support IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously, with eventual migration to IPv6. Release 12.3 also doubles the performance of ServerIron ADX platforms.

Brocade is heavily entrenched in IPv6-mandated markets like the federal government and Japan. The new gateway capability will allow those customers to accelerate and ease the transition to IPv6, says analyst Zeus Kerravala of the Yankee Group.

“There will be islands of IPv4 and IPv6,” Kerravala says. “This puts IPv6 as close to the application as possible and allows developers to modify the application — not the network — to be v6 compliant.”

The ServerIron ADX gateway enables a dual-protocol network through IPv4-to-IPv6 translation at the Layer 4-7 application level. Routers, meanwhile, support IPv6 at the Layer 3 network level.

A Layer 4-7 approach enables service providers, enterprises and government agencies to adopt IPv6 without replacing their existing IPv4 application infrastructure, Brocade says. Also, organizations with IPv6-only capable clients can now connect them to existing IPv4 resources, the company says.

The boost in performance that Release 12.3 supports enables the ServerIron ADX switches to handle 3 million HTTP connections per second. Brocade has also added an API to the software’s application resource broker, which allows developers to further customise ServerIron ADX’s application optimization capabilities.

The ServerIron ADX software release is a no-cost upgrade for customers with valid service contracts.