B R O C A D E S W I T C H FA M I L Y
The Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches
SILKWORM SWITCH FAMILY
Highlights
• Improves business operations by
increasing efficiency through higher
resource utilization
• Increases productivity through
ease of use and simplified
storage management
• Provides “pay-as-you-grow” scalability
from entry 2-switch fabrics to small
enterprise capabilities
• Protects investments with seamless
upgrades to new functions and future
switch capabilities
• Includes 1 and 2 Gbit/sec interfaces
for compatibility with SilkWorm fabric
switches and directors
• Provides flexibility as a reliable
foundation for entry-level SANs
and as an edge switch in larger
core-to-edge SAN environments
• Reduces capital expenses and
management costs by consolidating
storage and server devices in a
centralized environment—providing
rapid ROI
enables organizations of all sizes to deploy
affordable Storage Area Networks (SANs)
that significantly improve the efficiency of their
business operations.
Increased Efficiency to Manage
Business Growth
As organizations constantly face the
challenge to “do more with less,”
they need technology solutions that
are easy to implement and manage,
that can grow and change with
minimal disruption, and that offer
dramatic operational efficiencies.
Today, Brocade® SAN solutions can
help organizations simplify their
IT infrastructure, improve system
performance, reduce overall storage
costs, and increase flexibility for
continued growth.
Brocade offers a safe choice for small
and medium-sized organizations that
need reliable, easy-to-use SAN
solutions based on a field-proven
modular “building block” design.
The Brocade SilkWorm® family of
fabric switches is designed to meet
quickly evolving storage requirements
and seamlessly integrate into existing
IT operations, providing low-cost
access to SAN technology. In this
way, SilkWorm switches provide the
greatest possible value and investment
protection, with the ability meet
mission-critical requirements and
deliver significant business advantages
to growing organizations.The
SilkWorm family includes the
following switch models:
• SilkWorm 3250
• SilkWorm 3850
• SilkWorm 3800
• SilkWorm 3900
RAPID DEPLOYMENT AND COST SAVINGS
Brocade simplifies the process of
implementing SAN solutions,
a significant benefit for organizations
with limited IT expertise. Organizations
can rapidly deploy SANs and easily
integrate them into a variety of IT
environments, with only minimal
management required in small SAN
configurations.These ease-of-use
advantages can dramatically increase
administrator productivity and reduce
overall storage costs. Moreover, there
is low incremental cost to upgrade
and scale Brocade SANs as business
requirements evolve.
SILKWORM SWITCH FAMILY
HIGH PERFORMANCE FOR KEY APPLICATIONS
The high-performance 2 Gbit/sec Fibre
Channel capabilities of the SilkWorm
switches speed data transfer to help keep
data flowing.This higher throughput
increases overall system performance for
key applications such as LAN-free backup,
server and storage consolidation, and
data replication. In turn, the centralized
SAN approach helps increase operational
efficiency and staff productivity, two
critical requirements for small and
medium-sized businesses.
Auto-sensing and speed matching of
1 and 2 Gbit/sec data traffic ensures
interoperability between all SilkWorm entry,
midrange, and director switch offerings.
In addition, the switches integrate with
heterogeneous environments that include
multiple operating systems such as
Windows NT, UNIX, Linux, Solaris,
AIX, and others.This advanced level of
flexibility enables organizations to build
cost-efficient and easy-to-manage SANs.
INDUSTRY-LEADING SOFTWARE CAPABILITIES
SilkWorm switches can utilize the following
advanced software solutions from Brocade
to meet specific business challenges:
• Brocade Advanced Zoning permits only
authorized devices and applications to
access data, thereby increasing security
and control.
• Brocade Advanced Performance
Monitoring enables end-to-end
performance monitoring of the
SAN fabric.
• Brocade Fabric Watch enables organizations
to proactively monitor the health of the
network with comprehensive thresholds
and alerts that help prevent outages.
• Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL)
Trunking provides 8 Gbit/sec data
throughput for improved performance.
• Brocade Secure Fabric OS® helps ensure
that all of these management capabilities
are available in a secure environment.
• The Brocade Fabric Access API enables
the integration of powerful SilkWorm
switch functions into a wide range of
popular third-party management
applications, enabling organizations to
continue using their storage management
tools of choice.
SILKWORM 3250
The SilkWorm 3250 8-port fabric switch
enables even the smallest organizations to
deploy affordable SANs that improve the
efficiency of business operations and
significantly increase performance at an
entry-level price.The SilkWorm 3250
combines innovative hardware and software
features that make it easy to deploy, manage,
and integrate into a wide range of IT
environments. A reliable foundation for
small standalone or departmental SANs,
the SilkWorm 3250 is easily upgradeable
and provides seamless expansion to more
sophisticated core-to-edge network
architectures. Even as an entry-level
switch, it provides enterprise capabilities
such as hot code activation.
The SilkWorm 3250 provides high
performance with all ports capable of
operating at 1 and 2 Gbit/sec (full-duplex)
to enable up to 32 Gbit/sec of uncongested
throughput.With these powerful yet flexible
capabilities, the SilkWorm 3250 enables
organizations to start small and grow their
storage networks in a scalable, efficient
manner as business needs dictate.
SILKWORM 3850
Like the SilkWorm 3250, the SilkWorm
3850 16-port fabric switch enables small
and medium-sized organizations to deploy
affordable SANs that improve the efficiency
of their business operations. However, the
SilkWorm 3850 provides twice as many
SAN ports along with dual power supplies
for redundancy. In this way, it provides
excellent performance and reliability for
SANs at a cost-effective entry point.

All 16 ports are capable of operating
at 1 and 2 Gbit/sec (full-duplex) to
enable up to 64 Gbit/sec of uncongested
throughput. In addition, the SilkWorm
3850 includes innovative functions that
make it ideal for rapidly growing or
changing environments—enabling
organizations to start small and grow
their storage networks in a scalable,
efficient manner.This is especially
beneficial for organizations that want
to upgrade existing SAN environments
with minimal disruption.
The SilkWorm 3850 is capable of
supporting mission-critical applications
in small standalone SAN environments,
and is easily upgradeable to support
more demanding business requirements.
As a result, it can also function as an
edge switch within an enterprise
core-to-edge SAN built with other
SilkWorm switches and directors.
SILKWORM 3800
Designed for use as a departmental
switch at the center of small to
medium-sized storage networks or as
an edge switch in larger core-to-edge
SANs, the SilkWorm 3800 combines
high-performance and high-availability
characteristics in both hardware and
software. It provides 16 ports in a
1U enclosure with all ports capable
of operating at 1 and 2 Gbit/sec
(full-duplex) to enable 32 Gbit/sec
of uncongested switch throughput. In
addition, the SilkWorm 3800 provides
dual hot-swappable power and cooling
features for higher reliability.
Because it is fully interoperable
with existing SilkWorm switches,
the SilkWorm 3800 can facilitate
SAN expansion and provide higher
performance and availability within
existing fabrics.To simplify integration,
the SilkWorm 3800 helps automate
the configuration process, providing
an affordable switch that is both
easy to deploy and manage.These
B R O C A D E S W I T C H FA M I L Y
capabilities make the SilkWorm 3800
ideal for key SAN solutions such as
LAN-free backup and server and
storage consolidation.
SILKWORM 3900
The SilkWorm 3900 provides an
entry point to enterprise SANs,
improving availability, performance,
and manageability at an attractive
price. It is especially useful as a small
core switch or as a high-port-count
edge switch in more sophisticated
core-to-edge configurations built
around SilkWorm directors.With
32 ports capable of 2 Gbit/sec full-
duplex performance, the SilkWorm
3900 delivers up to 128 Gbit/sec of
aggregated throughput—providing
numerous business advantages for
organizations that want to increase The SilkWorm 3250
application performance and
operational productivity.
With the performance capabilities of
an enterprise switch and the cost-
effectiveness of a modular switch
solution, the SilkWorm 3900 enables an
extremely flexible SAN infrastructure
in midsize to large storage networks.
This highly available, scalable, and
secure foundation makes it ideal for The SilkWorm 3850
running SAN applications such as
high-speed data backup, server and
storage consolidation, remote mirroring,
and long-distance data replication. As a
result, organizations can easily implement
a SAN infrastructure that meets their
current needs and expands seamlessly
as their requirements evolve.
MAXIMIZING SAN INVESTMENTS The SilkWorm 3800
Brocade and its partners offer complete,
cost-effective SAN solutions to meet a
wide range of technology and business
requirements.These solutions include
education and training, support,
service, and professional services to
help optimize SAN investments.
For more information, contact an
authorized Brocade sales partner or
visit www.brocade.com. The SilkWorm 3900
SILKWORM SWITCH FAMILY

BROCADE SILKWORM SWITCH COMPARISON

FEATURE SILKWORM 3250 SILKWORM 3850 SILKWORM 3800 SILKWORM 3900

Maximum number of ports 8 16 16 32

Fabric OS level 4.x 4.x 3.x 4.x

Non-disruptive hot code activation • • •

Redundant power supplies • • •

Redundant cooling • • • •

Hot-swappable, dual-redundant power supplies and fan assemblies • •

Universal ports (F/FL/E) with self discovery • • • •

Auto-sensing 1 and 2 Gbit/sec link speeds • • • •

ISL Trunking (8 Gbit/sec) • • • •

Class 2 or 3 service support • • • •

F service support (inter-switch frames) • • • •

Short Wavelength Laser (SWL) and Long Wavelength Laser (LWL) capabilities • • • •

Extended Long Wavelength Laser (ELWL) media • •

Small form-factor pluggable media • • • •

Enhanced buffer pool management and support for mini-buffers • • •

Maximum latency (any port to any port) 2.0 microseconds • • • •

Minimum latency (optimum port conditions) 1.0 microseconds • • • •

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© 2004 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 04/04 GA-DS-668-00
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