The VDX switches are based on the Virtual Clustering Switching technique and architecture Brocade introduced last June. But Brocade's challenge will be to demonstrate the advantages of its VDX switches, VCS technology and overall Brocade One data center/cloud architecture over Cisco's Unified Computing and Juniper's Project Stratus data center fabric/ .

And Brocade must juggle this along with maintaining sales in its current generation Foundry switches as customers size up the new VDX line.

CEO Mike Klayko is confident of Brocade's opportunity in light of these challenges.

"Foundry had a little niche in a high performance, very dense application," Klayko . "Now we're taking data center robustness to that Ethernet product set to create what we're calling Ethernet fabrics. We believe this is the most innovative product to come out in networking in the last decade, and I think it is the foundation that will carry us forward for another decade."

in Network World's Data Center section.