"Basically, what we contend is with all the dynamics going on with virtualisation and cloud, what's required for VM mobility is a big, flat layer-2 network, not a three-tier spanning tree network because in a spanning tree network, you can't move VMs very easily," he says. "The spanning tree protocol basically assumes the problem is going to happen and you buy twice as much gear than you need, to wait for something to happen. The common math of current architecture is 40 percent of ports go unutilised. So a lot of wasted capital resources occurs with current architectures, which just aren't built for the virtualised, cloud enabled world we live in."

That is the company's calling card for datacentre customers, McGrath says. Its campus products have been refreshed recently under the ICX line of Ethernet switches with "mix and match stacking" and the ability to manage multiple switches using a single IP address.

McGrath is also hopeful for the Brocade Network Subscription solution, which is a monthly service that allows for the purchase of products on a per-port basis, which he says is attractive to hosted service providers.