To All,
After my visit to Ancor yesterday, and having some time to ponder what I saw and heard, I have come to several conclusions.
It will be VERY difficult to get a heads-up on any potential OEM deals. The new management team is VERY conscious of their responsibilities under NDA, and as we have seen recently, leaks are few and far between. (At least reliable ones. <g>)
Although we have been criticized for this in the past, I think the best way to anticipate the size of this market is simply to follow Ancor's competitors and the other Fibre Channel players. For example, in order to gauge the success of the Fibre Channel market and the demand for switches, we need to closely monitor the adapter, hub, and storage guys. If nobody is selling adapters or storage units, there won't be much demand for hubs and/or switches. On the other hand, if we continue to see record quarters from QLogic and others, that would seem to indicate growing acceptance of Fibre Channel.
I also believe that any OEM announcement, whether by Ancor, Brocade, or Vixel/Arcxel is a positive for Ancor in the long term, simply because it validates that this is an expanding market that may have more than one winner. The more players that decide to use Fibre Channel, the bigger the market becomes.
Craig |
