SAN JOSE, Calif., June 08, 2009 - Brocade® (Nasdaq:BRCD) today announced that Mizuno USA, Inc., a leading manufacturer of sports equipment and sportswear, conducted a significant network upgrade using Brocade FastIron® Power over Ethernet (PoE)-enabled and ServerIron® application delivery switches. Mizuno’s new architecture enables efficient and advanced IP communication between geographically distributed campuses and product development groups, providing the foundation needed to manage and expand business operations.
Parent company, Mizuno Corporation, designs and manufactures sports equipment and sportswear for recreational and professional athletes worldwide. Founded more than 100 years ago by Rihachi Mizuno in Osaka, Japan, the company has followed a product development strategy to create sporting goods with unique features and innovations that enhance athletic performance. Intense research and development (R&D) and technological advancements help keep Mizuno’s products on the leading edge of the highly competitive sporting goods industry.
“We are pleased that Mizuno installed Brocade networking technology to power its geographically distributed campus locations,” said Marc Randall, senior vice president, Products and Offerings, Brocade. “We are committed to delivering Mizuno innovative and advanced solutions to enable new capabilities that will give their organization a distinct competitive edge.”
Starting at the application layer of Mizuno’s network, award-winning Brocade ServerIron application delivery switches load-balance business application tools and R&D content efficiently over several geographically distributed campus locations. Mizuno uses Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) to maintain multiple Web servers and perform network maintenance and enhancements, reducing any network-related disruptions in order to maintain business continuity.
Rounding out the edge of the Mizuno network are PoE-ready 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) Brocade FastIron GS, LS, and SuperX™ switches, which provide a unified network infrastructure and high-performance connectivity to hundreds of dispersed corporate users. Mizuno is in the process of migrating hundreds of corporate phones to Voice over IP (VoIP), powered with full Class 3 PoE. This approach leverages a single unified communications infrastructure to help reduce operating costs and expedite telephony user adds, moves, and changes. The company does not have to make any network enhancements to complete the migration since Brocade switches can manage the VoIP and PoE functionality out of the box using Link Layer Discovery Protocol-Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED). For voice, LLDP-MED provides exceptional interoperability benefits, IP telephony troubleshooting, automatic deployment of policies, inventory management, advanced PoE, and E911 location/emergency call service capabilities. These sophisticated features make Mizuno’s converged network services easier to install, manage, and upgrade, all of which helps reduce operational costs.
Mizuno network management is facilitated by Brocade IronView® Network Manager (INM). This intelligent network management solution reduces the complexity of changing, monitoring, and managing network-wide features, such as Access Control Lists (ACLs), rate-limiting policies, VLANs, software and configuration updates, and network alarms and events. With Brocade INM’s intuitive and easy-to-use Web-based tools, networks are less prone to outages due to incorrect configurations or invalid software upgrades. Built on a Java-based platform, Brocade INM empowers Mizuno’s network operators to seamlessly control software and configuration updates for Brocade products from anywhere in the network, enabling more effective management of medium and large networks.
“A key component of our new Distribution Center was the seamless network integration with our current facilities,” said Keith Neely, vice president of Customer Support, Mizuno USA. “We trusted Brocade to provide the necessary technology, and trusted our network team to utilize its technology in order to get the job done. Over the years, Brocade has delivered us carrier-class performance in our enterprise switches, something many vendors just cannot do. Its standards-based features and a unified code base make interoperability and management a breeze, allowing us to focus on mission-critical business applications.”
Photos
Brocade FastIron GS http://www.flickr.com/photos/33437642@N02/3421693089/
Brocade FastIron LS http://www.flickr.com/photos/33437642@N02/3422501490/
Brocade FastIron SuperX http://www.flickr.com/photos/33437642@N02/3312947622/
Brocade ServerIronGT E http://www.flickr.com/photos/33437642@N02/3312118493/
More Information
http://www.brocade.com/products-solutions/
http://www.mizunousa.com/
About Brocade
Brocade (Nasdaq:BRCD) develops extraordinary networking solutions that enable today’s complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. For more information, visit www.brocade.com.
Brocade, the B-wing symbol, BigIron, DCX, Fabric OS, FastIron, IronPoint, IronShield, IronView, IronWare, JetCore, NetIron, SecureIron, ServerIron, StorageX, and TurboIron are registered trademarks, and DCFM, Extraordinary Networks, and SAN Health are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to identify, products or services of their respective owners.
© 2009 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.