1. SAN SUCCESS STORY
RACKSPACE
MANAGED
HOSTING
STORAGE AREA Bolstering a SAN for a New
NETWORK Generation of Growth
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Founded on the principle that technology over 50 percent year-to-year growth.
is only as good as its implementation, However, as the division grew, Rackspace
Technology Challenge
Rackspace Managed Hosting has thrived recognized the opportunity to enhance
Boost Storage Area Network (SAN) capacity
by tailoring its Web hosting solutions its SAN to better serve its customers. By
to support a rapidly growing managed
to the unique needs of its customers. increasing the number of available ports
backup and storage services division while
Since opening its first data center in San of its SAN switches, Rackspace reasoned
streamlining administration of storage and
Antonio, Texas, in 1998, the company has that it could more easily and cost-effectively
backup SANs
transformed itself into one of the Internet’s add storage and backup devices, as well as
biggest successes, becoming one of its leverage higher-speed connections to link
Solution
industry’s fastest-growing enterprises. customers to their hosted data.
• Brocade® 48000 Directors
Through the years, Rackspace has launched In addition, Rackspace wanted to
• Brocade 4900 Switches
four new data centers in the U.S. and four consolidate and simplify the management
• Brocade 4100 Switches in the United Kingdom. In addition, the of its backup and storage services, reducing
• Brocade Fabric Manager company has added a variety of new service administration time and costs while
offerings to fulfill the unique business increasing reliability. The company realized
• Brocade Services
requirements of its diverse clientele, that newer energy-efficient storage solutions
Benefits including a new Managed Backup and would lower its power consumption and
• Improved scalability to quickly add Storage Division introduced in 2001. costs for existing and additional equipment.
storage and backup devices with
Rackspace achieved all of these objectives
increased ports to provision and support SAN UPDATES TO SUPPORT GROWTH by revamping its SAN with a scalable,
a rapidly growing customer base The new division—which added managed
reliable solution based on Brocade 48000
• Centralized management to reduce backup and data storage services to
Directors, Brocade 4900 Switches, and
the time and cost needed to perform Rackspace’s diverse offerings—became an
Brocade 4100 Switches. The Managed
provisioning, monitoring, and instant success, enhancing the company’s
Backup and Storage Division also
administration tasks
• 50 percent lower power consumption

2. SAN SUCCESS STORY
implemented Brocade Fabric Manager, a to connect customers to storage and
single-point SAN management platform backup services faster and more reliably.
WHY BROCADE
designed for managing multiple Brocade Features such as enhanced Brocade
• Robust feature set with 4 Gbit/sec
switches and fabrics in real time. Although Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking (which
performance and “pay-as-you-grow”
Rackspace IT staff ably deployed the new combines up to eight 4 Gbit/sec ports
scalability with Ports on Demand
equipment, they relied on Brocade Services between switches into a single, logical high-
capabilities
to ensure that the new platforms were speed trunk running at up to 32 Gbit/sec)
configured for optimal performance. improve system throughput and availability. • Single, intuitive solution for managing
Exchange-based Dynamic Path Selection multiple SAN switches, directors, and
“The decision to use Brocade was easy,” fabrics
(DPS) optimizes fabric-wide performance
says Chad Smykay, the Rackspace storage
and load balancing by automatically • Energy-efficient solutions that reduce
engineer who performed the installation.
routing data to the most efficient available power consumption and associated costs
“Their systems perform so reliably that
path in the fabric. This minimizes service
once you set them, you almost forget
degradation and helps ensure fast delivery
they’re there. Fabric Manager simplifies
of data. performance monitoring. Smykay explains,
management and saves us time and costs.”
In addition, Brocade 4 Gbit/sec SAN directors “Fabric Manager helps us prevent problems
“Before,” Smykay adds, “we spent a lot of before they affect our systems, which
are rated to be—and have been tested
time performing routine maintenance on translates to higher reliability and improved
as—the most power-efficient SAN directors in
each individual SAN switch. Now, we can availability for our customers.”
the market, resulting in significant electricity
do monitoring, troubleshooting, and apply
savings and improved cooling efficiency. “The Brocade solution has given the
global changes and firmware upgrades from
Smykay estimates that the division’s Rackspace Managed Backup and Storage
a central Fabric Manager console. Perhaps
directors operate with 50 percent less power Division the infrastructure to support a new
most importantly, the Brocade solution will
than the SAN platforms they replaced. “The generation of growth, while providing the
enable us to easily provision more switches
power consumption of Brocade directors and management tools necessary to manage
within fabrics more quickly and efficiently.”
switches has always been excellent, and it’s our evolving customer base effectively,”
always improving,” Smykay notes. “When concludes Smykay. “As the world’s fastest-
INDUSTRY-LEADING DIRECTORS you have thousands of storage and backup growing managed hosting providers,
At the center of the SAN, the Brocade clients, even a dollar a day savings per device our success depends on harnessing
48000 Directors scale non-disruptively from can quickly add up.” technologies that help us sustain our
32 to as many as 384 concurrently active
customer service levels. Brocade solutions
4 Gbit/sec full-duplex ports in a single
REDUCED ADMINISTRATION do that efficiently and are providing us with
domain, enabling Rackspace to support
LOWERS COSTS an outstanding return on our investment.”
thousands of new devices and customers.
Rackspace is also reducing administrative
Because the directors are not highly over- For more information, visit www.brocade.com.
costs thanks to Fabric Manager. The
subscribed, they can provide more total
solution lets Rackspace perform end-
bandwidth than competitive offerings. The
to-end SAN management tasks across
Brocade 4900 and 4100 Switches provide
multiple devices in a single operation, and
reliable 4 Gbit/sec performance and
it optimizes fabric utilization and capacity
scale easily through the Ports on Demand
planning through simplified analysis and
capability used throughout the Brocade
switch family.
Moreover, the directors enable Rackspace
Corporate Headquarters European Headquarters Asia Pacific Headquarters
San Jose, CA USA Geneva, Switzerland Singapore
T: (408) 333-8000 T: +41 22 799 56 40 T: +65-6538-4700
info@brocade.com emea-info@brocade.com apac-info@brocade.com
© 2007 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 06/07 GA-SS-1068-00
Brocade, the Brocade B-weave logo, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, Secure Fabric OS, SilkWorm, and
StorageX are registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol and Tapestry are trademarks of Brocade
Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. FICON is a registered trademark of IBM
Corporation in the U.S. and 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.
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.