Brocade has unveiled a strategy to deliver what it calls the on-demand datacentre through a combination of physical and virtual networking to overcome the limitations of legacy networks.

The company said that by combining physical and virtual networking, users can create a network that reduces complexity and offers scalable virtualisation on-demand.

Brocade claimed that its new initiative will reduce the barriers to entry for companies looking to adopt a software-defined network (SDN) strategy.

“The On-Demand Data Center strategy from Brocade provides an end-to-end solution that spans the physical, virtual and orchestration layers of the datacentre,” Kelly Herrell, vice president and general manager of software networking at Brocade, told V3.

“It brings advanced technologies into play in a pragmatic and evolutionary way, offering a unique path toward software-defined networking (SDN). With Brocade, customers can build upon their current infrastructure investments while moving toward the next evolution in networking.”

Brocade’s strategy aims to create offerings that can use both physical and virtual networking tools. The firm says that the offerings will allow users to mix and match both types of networking options, offering greater flexibility to quickly deploy cloud-based services.

According to the firm, the combination can better handle large-scale multi-tenancy better than legacy networks. Brocade says that the combination allows users to see all servers as a constantly growing shared resources pool.

Brocade also claimed that the combination enables reduced overhead and shorter deployment times through self-service provision models.

Along with the on-demand strategy, Brocade has launched a variety of updated offerings. These include Brocade’s recently announced VCS fabric plug-in. The plug-in offers users the chance to create on-demand provisioning capabilities for OpenStack clouds.

Herrell says that building tools for open networks like OpenStack is an important key in the new era of the market.

“Open network solutions are a new era for the industry. The advantages can be summed up in two words: choice and speed. For choice, openness facilitates solution and vendor interoperability. This allows the customer to select the right tools for the right jobs instead of being force-fed what a single vendor offers,” continued Herrell.

“For speed, this is the benefit gained when open industry collaboration advances technologies faster than what any single vendor acting alone can produce. This naturally improves the speed with which datacentre architecture can adapt to new business pressures.”

Brocade has long been a supporter of open technologies such as OpenStack and OpenDaylight. Herrell says that open initiatives allow for companies to plan for growth in the datacentre and prevents vendor lock-in.

“Customers need to drive their datacentre strategies forward with urgency. They can’t wait; they need to do their architecting and planning now, using the most open and advanced tools they can get their hands on,” continued Herrell.

“Open network solutions such as OpenStack and OpenDaylight are constantly evolving and improving as the ecosystem collaborates on advancing the state of the technology. Importantly, this advancement is being done in an open environment which eliminates vendor lock-in.”

OpenStack has been a major focus on news recently. Red Hat executives recently warned that the platform was the only way to guarantee interoperability between different cloud operators.