Brocade, Nortel link on optical storage

Brocade Communications Systems and Nortel Networks announced a partnership Tuesday that they say will improve optical storage technology. Brocade, which makes infrastructure for storage area networks (SANs), will put its switches on Nortel's optical networks, the companies said, making for a more cost-effective storage technology and more reliable data backup. SANs store data in a centralized network, as opposed to on hundreds of servers. Nortel and Brocade said they plan to deliver a range of hardware and software for optical SAN technology by working together on interoperability testing and the extension of SANs to metropolitan and wide-area networks. Wide-area networks are made up of interconnected, smaller networks spread throughout a building, a state or the entire globe. The two companies introduced a product called "Solutionware," which gives instructions on how to configure and install Nortel optical infrastructure in a Brocade SAN environment. --Tiffany Kary, Special to ZDNet News