Brocade HyperEdge technology provides consolidated management and mix-and-match stacking on the campus LAN, so that you can operate at the speed of business, take risk and effort out of network administration, and have confidence in a network that “just works.” HyperEdge technology is designed towork with the Brocade ICX® Series of campus switches.With HyperEdge technology, multiple switches can be pooled together and managed as a single entity. Administrators can apply all configuration changes and policy settings to every switch assigned to the pool from asingle point of management. When a new switch is added to the pool, HyperEdge technology discovers the switch and its capabilities. Existing configuration and policy settings are automatically applied without operator intervention. The consolidated management of switch pools across the campus provided by HyperEdge technology makes switch configuration simple, automatic, and immediate. This provides assurance that security and access control policies are consistently applied as new switches are added.

1. POSITIONING
PAPER
The Effortless Network:
HyperEdge Technology for the Campus LAN
The Brocade One® strategy represents a smooth transition to a world where information and applications
reside anywhere in the cloud. Customers use the campus LAN as the portal to the data center cloud, and
The Effortless Network™ is the Brocade vision for the future of the campus LAN. Based on the foundation
of Brocade® HyperEdge™ technology, The Effortless Network simplifies network architecture and
automates configuration and management tasks, while providing enterprise-grade flexibility, security, and
scalability for wired and wireless access. Unlike competitive approaches, The Effortless Network avoids the
trap of over-engineered, over-priced, and hard-to-manage campus networks. It is designed to meet the
requirements of the most demanding applications with a network that keeps running, no matter what.
New Applications Add New Stresses
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) leverages server
virtualization to reduce the cost and complexity of
desktop application support, application upgrades,
data management, and data security. While VDI
addresses desktop application problems including
upgrades, patching, and security of desktop data, it
also creates new challenges for the campus LAN.
User mouse clicks, typing, and screen refreshes
have to move from the local device to the virtual
machine hosting the desktop, and back again. The
impact in the campus is higher bandwidth, lower
latency, and always-up availability.
As end-user devices increase performance at the
speed of Moore’s Law, user expectations increase just as fast. Nowhere is the expectation gap more
evident than with video. Today, users expect real-time access to streaming video for corporate training,
executive briefings, and even when conducting meetings with remote customers. This “video-on-demand”
expectation requires the campus network to deliver higher bandwidth with low latency and jitter.
Enterprises are experiencing a historic transition in how employees communicate. Previously, voice, e-mail,
instant messaging, and video conferencing were deployed with separate applications, used different
devices, and often had independent networks. Today, Unified Communications (UC) brings all forms of
communication to a single device—a desktop/laptop computer, tablet, iPad, or smartphone—delivering
real-time collaboration. Human collaboration is dynamic. For example, a low-bandwidth text message can
instantly transform into a shared desktop with joint editing of documents, and—with a mouse click—can
expand to a video chat before disappearing again at the end of the collaboration. The campus network has
to scale, ensure consistent security policies, and provide low latency and jitter while maintaining
continuous uptime.

2. The explosion of smartphones, tablet computers, and iPads sets a user expectation that access to the
data, applications, and social networks they rely on in their personal lives will be available when they are at
work. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has a positive impact on IT budgets when users purchase and
maintain their own devices, yet it creates concerns about securing wireless access to sensitive corporate
data. User expectations of seamless access require consistently applied security policies across both wired
and wireless LAN segments.
Figure 1. Impact of BYOD on campus LAN.
Friction Points: Business Expectations Confront Campus Realities
Every network in the enterprise, whether it is the data center or the campus, must be designed to meet
business expectations that are balanced with technology choices. This has not been easy, with IT budgets
shrinking while applications, data, and user devices have continued to grow rapidly—even during the
recent recession.
The cost of running the campus network is
out of control in many organizations. Gartner
estimates that companies spend 17 percent
of their total IT budget (CapEx plus OpEx) on
their networks. In 2011, more than half of
the operating expense was devoted to
maintaining the campus network. Gartner
also found that companies who had a single
vendor procurement strategy for the campus
incurred a 25 percent premium in total cost
of ownership over a five-year period. This
adds up to an average cost of $1,400 per person per year for campus networks—clearly a major
investment. For this reason, focused actions that reduce the cost of the campus LAN are a top strategic
objective at many companies.
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3. A survey of Fortune 1000 enterprise network administrators (taken by InfoPro) identified the following top
four pain points for companies operating a campus network:
1. Keeping up with technology
2. Capacity planning
3. Reliability and performance
4. Managing growth
The root cause of this pain is complexity. Campus networks originally provided a connection from desktop
computers to file/print servers or connected desktop clients to servers hosting back office applications.
Today, Unified Communications, virtual desktop infrastructure, streaming video, and Web 2.0 applications
clearly create complex traffic flows. The campus LAN has to ensure device access is secure, as well as
having to scale with the increased use of rich media, including peer-to-peer video conferences and video
chat. It also has to handle the wide range of data streams created when collaborating with Unified
Communications applications.
Increasingly, work happens at any time and any place an employee chooses. It is common for employees
to use several devices during the day: a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet computer, an iPad, and a
smartphone. Employees expect the freedom to choose the device that best meets their needs with
unfettered access to applications and data. This is causing an explosion in wireless traffic in the campus,
which creates new traffic patterns while requiring more bandwidth. To keep up, administrators need
unified management across wired and wireless segments. In particular, security policies need to be
consistent and simple to administer.
Where Is the Innovation?
Clearly, there is a need for innovation in the campus
network. New applications, device mobility, and the positive “There have been few
impact on the bottom line of seamless collaboration substantial changes to the
between workers, suppliers, and customers is happening
[enterprise] networking
much more quickly than the traditional campus network is
vendors’ approaches in the
able to evolve.
last 20 years.”
Gartner points out, however, that for the past 20 years there —Gartner
has been little innovation in the enterprise network. Venture
capital investment—a measure of innovation—has drastically
dropped from a high in 2000 of $11 billion to less than $1
billion in 2011. Combined with the fact that the leaders in campus networking, both at the high and low
end of the market, have not made significant investments beyond incremental “speed and feed”
enhancements, it becomes clear why innovation has stalled in the campus LAN.
Building The Effortless Network
As Brocade has considered today’s campus network and the
“Don’t assume that current
impact of new applications and business demands, it has
become clear that solving emerging problems using old
architectural approaches are
assumptions is an inadequate approach. To achieve the the only way forward in
required simplicity, scalability, availability, and dramatic designing campus LANs. Be
reductions in cost of ownership requires a new vision. prepared to evaluate different
Brocade calls it The Effortless Network, and it is built from architectural solutions as they
the innovations found in HyperEdge technology. become available.”
—Gartner
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4. Brocade HyperEdge Technology
Brocade HyperEdge technology provides consolidated management and mix-and-match stacking on the
campus LAN, so that you can operate at the speed of business, take risk and effort out of network
administration, and have confidence in a network that “just works.” HyperEdge technology is designed to
work with the Brocade ICX® Series of campus switches.
Consolidated Management
Campus networks extend between buildings, across multiple
floors, and—with wireless access points—span outdoor as
well as indoor spaces. With traditional networks, adding a
switch, changing a network policy, or adding another user
device requires manual changes to multiple configuration
settings in many switches, routers, access points, and
controllers. The opportunity to make a mistake, not to
mention the time and effort involved, is why operating costs
and complexity in the campus network have gotten out
of control.
With HyperEdge technology, multiple switches can be
pooled together and managed as a single entity.
Administrators can apply all configuration changes and
policy settings to every switch assigned to the pool from a
single point of management.
When a new switch is added to the pool, HyperEdge HyperEdge Technology
technology discovers the switch and its capabilities. Existing Consolidated Management
configuration and policy settings are automatically applied
without operator intervention. The consolidated management of switch pools across the campus provided
by HyperEdge technology makes switch configuration simple, automatic, and immediate. This provides
assurance that security and access control policies are consistently applied as new switches are added.
In many campus networks, switch firmware upgrades create significant extra work, requiring time-
consuming manual changes to each switch. Consolidated management includes the ability to apply a new
firmware release automatically to every switch in a pool.
Finally, as traffic patterns become more complex and devices grow, tools that simplify traffic monitoring
and management are critical for a high-quality user experience. An important capability built into the
Brocade campus LAN products supported by HyperEdge technology is the open standard sFlow
protocol. With sFlow, administrators have immediate access to traffic statistics. They can see an overview
of the entire campus network and zoom into a single virtual machine hosting a VDI application or UC
server. sFlow support across a set of switches pooled together with HyperEdge technology means
administrators can continue to use their favorite sFlow monitoring applications with the Brocade family of
campus switches.
The Effortless Network: HyperEdge Technology for the Campus LAN 4 of 8

5. Mix-and-Match Stacking
Switch stacking is a common method of scaling
connectivity and bandwidth at a lower cost than with a
chassis switch. Stacking connects multiple switches
together using dedicated stacking ports on each
switch. However, current stacking methods also have
restrictions. Flexibility is lost, as all switches in a stack
must have the same hardware configuration and
features enabled, including expensive Layer 3
protocols. Finally, investment protection is limited,
because upgrading switch hardware requires all
switches in the stack to be replaced, while adding
premium features means all switches have to HyperEdge Technology
be upgraded. Mix-and-Match Stacking
HyperEdge mix-and-match switch stacking eliminates
all these drawbacks and lowers first cost, while improving scalability and flexibility. HyperEdge switching
stacks can include a mix of Layer 2 and premium Layer 3 switches in the same stack. All switches share
the premium Layer 3 protocols without requiring every switch to be upgraded or replaced. A single
advanced Layer 3 switch (or two switches, for high availability) can be added to a stack at any time. All
switches can send traffic to the Layer 3 capable switches, dramatically reducing the cost of the stack.
HyperEdge mix-and-match stacking provides all the benefits of chassis switch architecture. For example, in
a chassis, it is easy to combine a high-performance routing card with high-density Layer 2 Ethernet cards.
For the first time, HyperEdge mix-and-match stacking offers the same benefits in a highly cost-effective
switch stack. More important, as new campus products become available with advanced services and
features, they can be added to existing stacks without replacing or upgrading the other switches in the
stack. This unique innovation delivers long awaited investment protection, increased operational flexibility,
and significant first-cost savings to the campus LAN.
The Effortless Network: HyperEdge Technology for the Campus LAN 5 of 8

6. HyperEdge Technology Delivers The Effortless Network
Campus LAN architecture built with HyperEdge technology is ready to take on the challenges of streaming
video, UC, and VDI applications with built-in scalability and ease of management that keeps up with the
growth in mobile devices. With advances such as consolidated management and mix-and-match stacking,
HyperEdge technology solves all of the operations management lifecycle problems in today’s campus
network. From installation to upgrade, every step is simple. Also, first cost and OpEx are reduced, while
configurations and policy settings are uniformly applied one time, every time.
Figure 2. HyperEdge Technology simplifies the operations lifecycle and reduces OpEx for the
campus network.
The Effortless Network: HyperEdge Technology for the Campus LAN 6 of 8

7. The Effortless Network is here. As you look toward the next decade of business and technology changes
and start to rethink your existing campus LAN strategy, challenge Brocade to deliver a personalized
Brocade One architecture tailored to your unique campus environment. Figure 2 shows one way to apply
the Brocade HyperEdge technology to the campus LAN, making it a cost-effective strategic asset for the
next decade.
*Brocade HyperEdge technology is planned to be available for purchase in the first half of 2013.
Figure 3. Brocade campus network reference architecture.
To learn more about The Effortless Network, Brocade HyperEdge technology, and the Brocade ICX Campus
Switch family, visit http://www.brocade.com/products/all/switches/index.page.
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8. © 2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 12/12 GA-PP-431-01
ADX, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, Brocade One, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, SAN Health, VCS, and VDX are
registered trademarks, and AnyIO, HyperEdge, NET Health, OpenScript, and The Effortless Network are trademarks of Brocade
Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may
be trademarks of their respective owners.
Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any
equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to this
document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes features that may
not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability. Export of technical data
contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.
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