DS, here's my swag at your FC Qs.
One of these days I'll figure out the cool formatting stuff like italics and bold. Until then, my answers match your questions' #. Also, this is all just IMHO...
1. If IPR is intellectual property rights, then my answer is YES. Compare this to Cisco's overlay of middleware/software on top of Ethernet standards, and how they came to rule the roost in routers. What I can't say is how far we are from that in FC today, though. I think FCcos. are edging closer in a few areas. My belief is that if FC crosses the chasm (might have done so already...haven't had time to look since I finished the book), it will closely resemble the LAN model in content. I hope (nay, I pray) it resembles it in revenue. <g>
2. Right now, they and ANCR are the two chimps fighting for gorilla-hood (provided I understand the terms completely.) I believe one of these two will be the gorilla, once we're in the tornado. The winner goes back to your #1 question, and from there I think Brocade has a better chance of adding value thru software, simply because Ancor has eschewed trumpeting their software. Ancor has done "me, too" software, but their hardware is starting to race ahead of Brocade.
3. My own personal opinion is that a) Legato will announce just about anything, b) SpectraLogic is the weakest link in that value chain, but can easily be replaced with any other tape library, c) bets are hedged by having Veritas and Legato in the announcement, and d) LAN-free backup has been available for a 12 mos or longer now, so it's really not news, except to NTAP. The SAN/NAS distinction remains, in my mind. FWIW, I believe they are complementary, and should propel growth for both market spaces.
4. The closest threat to FC today is InfiniBand. IB is a stew-pot of NGIO, SIO, FIO, and maybe a couple of other industry groups, that want to replace the PCI bus in a server. IB implements internally switched message traffic (I love switching!) between memory, CPU, IO devices, networks, etc. The standard includes external IB attachment, as well. I personally don't perceive it as a threat to FC *for external attachment* for a few years, for a lot of reasons. Discord amongst members is one, very early in standards-setting for another, external options to bridge the gap for attachment for another. To me, what's important about IB is the move from an arbitrated bus to a switched fabric INTERNALLY! Very explosive, IMVHO. What's funny is that Intel, Compaq, IBM, Sun, etc. all decided at basically the same time that it was time to do it. I'm sure it's been on the backburner for eons, but they all announced at the same time that they had an industry group to do it. Intel *seems* to have won the assimilation battle AGAIN. Fascinating stuff...
I hope I've added something here. Please understand that being in the business, I feel like I'm too wrapped up in my sales message to be objective. All of this buck's humble opinion, filtered through one reading of GG, and two years in the chasm.
buck |
