Brocade snaps up mobile SDN start-up

Brocade is acquiring Connectem, a privately-held company in the LTE virtual evolved packet core (vEPC) market, for an undisclosed sum.

Brocade says the continued explosive growth of traditional mobile data, combined with emerging requirements around machine-to-machine and Internet of Things connectivity, place new demands on mobile networks.

"To meet these challenges, mobile operators are looking to the power of virtualisation to create flexible, scalable and easy-to-deploy packet cores.

"Connectem provides highly differentiated vEPC solutions with unique architectural attributes that leverage cloud computing, network virtualization and software networking technologies to deliver higher scale and efficiency on industry-standard x86-based servers.

"Connectem software focuses on mapping mobile workloads to cloud resources, eliminating the constraints of physical equipment boundaries yet still maintaining the capability to integrate with traditional node-based EPC architectures.

Lloyd Carney, Brocade CEO, says the acquisition strengthens Brocade's position in the networking industry as the adoption of software-centric networking continues to accelerate.

"I am very pleased to bring this technology into our portfolio as we invest strategically in New IP across NFV and SDN to provide seamless data center and cloud solutions," Carney says.

Brocade says it believes the Connectem technology is a key enabler for emerging markets including IoT, M2M, industrial internet and enterprise mobile data services.

Connectem will be included Brocade's Emerging Business Group, once the deal concludes – expected to be in the second quarter of Brocade's fiscal 2015.

The deal continues Brocade's 'transformative investment strategy', which has included acquisitions of Vyatta, Vistapointe and the SteelApp virtual ADC product line from Riverbed.