From Fred Hager:
>
>
> This week, Eric Jhonsa checks in with McData (MCDT) and Silicon Storage
> (SSTI), and Bill Teel covers the latest on Rambus' (RMBS) earnings report,
> as well as the trial with Infineon.
>
> McData
>
> Earlier this week, Brocade officially marked its entry into the high-end
> fibre channel switching market, via its announcement of the coming release
> of the SilkWorm 12000 switch, set to be available in 64-port and 128-port
> configurations. A number of analysts took this announcement as a sign
that
> Brocade now had a high-end product offering that's extremely competitive
> with that of rivals such as McData and Inrage; and at first glance, it
> would seem that the facts tend to back up such an assertion. After all,
> the SilkWorm 12000 does contain a number of features absent from Brocade's
> mid-range fibre channel switches, including non-disruptive software
> upgrades, redundant and "hot-swappable" (capable of being replaced without
> shutting down the switch) control processors, and redundant switching
> modules.
>
> Nonetheless, the product doesn't contain a highly how-swappable line
cards.
> This, in turn, prevents the SilkWorm 12000 from attaining 99.999%
> reliability, something that many, if not most, high-end switch users
insist
> on. Furthermore, it appears that the SilkWorm 12000, unlike McData's
> director switches, is a "multi-stage" product, which means that the
> switch's line cards are placed on multiple backplanes, something that
> results in higher latency. Also, Brocade possesses little to no
> intellectual property that directly relates to the performance and
> functionality of a fibre channel switch, as compared with 20+ patents that
> McData has in its possession. Last but not least, it's worth keeping in
> mind that, in spite of the lengthy press release and numerous third-party
> quotes that Brocade provided for it, the SilkWorm 12000 won't be available
> until the fourth quarter of this year. On the other hand, McData's
> ED-6064, a 64-port director-class switch announced earlier this week, will
> begin shipping later this month. By the time that Brocade begins to ship
> the SilkWorm 12000, not only is it possible that McData will have released
> a next-generation, 128-port switch, it's also quite possible that
Brocade's
> switch will have missed out on a good portion of the massive storage
> upgrade period that's bound to take place once economic conditions begin
to
> improve, something that could lead its current customers to take a closer
> look at competing solutions.
>
> Thank you and have a nice weekend,
>
> The Fredhager.com Staff
>
>
> |
