Gus, It looks like Inrange and McData will be duking it out over IBM. Here is a piece that quotes a/port price for Inrange...When will McData up their port density to match A/I director?
Inrange ships 64-port Fibre Channel switch
Taking aim at the market segment dominated by McData Corp., Inrange Technologies last month began shipping a high-end "director" class Fibre Channel switch with 64 ports. According to International Data Corp., director switches are the fastest-growing segment of the overall Fibre Channel hub and switch market. IDC predicts a 129% compound annual growth rate for Fibre Channel directors over the next few years. (For more information on Fibre Channel hub and switch shipments, see InfoStor, April, p. 1.)
Part of Inrange's IN-VSN (Virtual Storage Networking) family, the FC/9000-64 switch supports Class 2 and Class 3 service levels, and includes fully redundant components. The FC/9000 is priced at $4,375 per port. The switch is based in part on technology from Ancor Communications, and Ancor will resell a version of Inrange's switch. A 128-port director switch is due in the fourth quarter. www.inrange.com.
McData announces low-end FC switch
McData Corp. has rounded out the low end of its Fibre Channel switch line by announcing an eight-port fabric switch that incorporates many of the fault-tolerant features of McData's 32-port director switches. Redundant components include hot-pluggable optics, power supplies, power connections, and fans. The ECS-1000 (Enterprise Con- nectivity Switch) is targeted at workgroup environments, particularly those consolidating Windows NT/2000 servers and storage resources. In addition to NT consolidation, McData is targeting applications such as private loop connectivity and tape aggregation/pooling.
This price is just a fraction of the prices you mentioned. SO they seem to be following your prescription. Perhaps they(McData and CNT) will come down.
If you missed it here is a post that helped us stay the course, from the SI ANCR/QLGC archives about how Inrange may be doing....
Message 13851129
Wasn't able to attend the recent SAN conference but did receive a report from a colleague. Some select G2 re ANCR/INRANGE:
Director demand growing:
INRANGE is swamped with orders for the Director switch. IBM is their main client, and a source indicated that IBM is seeking switches in the order of 180 - 200 switches per month, mainly for internal implementation, with some slated for outside sales. IBM could purchase a significant number from INRANGE, if not all of them. As a result of this growing demand, INRANGE may seek a third party ECM to manufacture more Directors. The QLGC merger goes a long way towards easing INRANGE's concern that ANCR's sales/service/support can meet the growing demand. Likely OEM pricing for IBM in the neighborhood of $75k - $100k per Director. The ANCR/INRANGE licensing agreement means ANCR gets a share of this potential $20 million/quarter revenue stream.
Will try to post some JavaOne notes this weekend, if I can procure the services of my Jiro translator. It's all geek to me.
Douglas
It will be interesting to see who will be the first to qualify these director products. |
