RE: Interop and Fibre Alliance (EMC)
This is my take on things based on conversations from
reliable people. EMC is a well run company with
extraordinary management. Their CEO has a lot of clout
and a sharp tongue. When he speaks, everyone listens
like the old EF Hutton commercials :-)
Anyways, EMC plans on growing by leaps and bounds. Some
people would argue they are pretty big right now, but
the future goals are huge. Storage has plenty of room to
absorb serious money. EMC wants even a bigger share of the
action than they have now. To get the highest margins in
the computer industry you must follow in the footsteps of
Bill Gates: namely, sell software as opposed to hardware.
Selling fancy software packages on a CDROM at several
hundred thousand dollars a pop sure beats the heck out
of selling a big box with the worries of returns, revenue
recognition, manufacturing, part shortages, etc., etc.
OK, so what does this have to do with interop, Brocade,
and Ancor? If EMC wants to sell their "Command Center"
software, it should work seamlessly with the company's
Symmetrix box and FC switches pretty much across the board.
You manage and control the hardware for switches using
a SMNP standard called a MIB. See
emc.com
As I understand the score, McData is MIB 1.5 compliant;
Brocade had their own very strange MIB; and EMC wants
everybody to gravitate to MIB 2.2. Ancor is in the
Fibre Alliance, so one would hope they got the message
and would be willing the carry the water with the SANbox.
It would be a nice area of questioning for the CC (hint,
hint).
I would not be surprised if EMC did not rip out the
software components of the Brocade switch to see
if they could use the remaining hardware parts for
internal testing of switching speeds (latency and all
that). EMC followed this pattern with McData
switches for reasons I never quite understood.
In summary, I read the recent EMC announcement about
a test kit for the Brocade product as a slam---not a big
boost. I guess the press release is in the eye of the
beholder. By Brocade refusing the get with the program
regarding sensible MIBs, they are costing EMC a ton
of money and lots of ire.
If I were the CEO of Brocade playing the short-term
gain at the expense of long term relationships, I would
be selling my options in $30M clips at every opportunity.
80% market share must look impossible to maintain no
matter how many PR releases you generate. Perceptions
are everything to Reyes right now. Making switches
interop with others brands is the last thing he wants to
do. |
