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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerry Lee who wrote (22455)	6/7/1999 7:42:00 AM
From: Neil S	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

Sun Adds Fibre Channel Switch To Lineup -- Storage bundles will let users support multiple connections techweb.com Martin J. Garvey Sun Microsystems said last week that it will begin reselling Fibre Channel switches from Ancor Communications Inc. as part of storage area network bundles based on its StorEdge systems. By adding switches to its lineup, Sun will let customers support multiple networked connections among servers and storage. Until now, Sun has offered hubs, which support only a fixed number of connections among servers and storage, as its high-end interconnect technology. Switches let IT managers create an infrastructure over long distances that connects servers to storage systems based on application needs, and provide users with access to data from almost any source. "We don't yet have the panacea to get to storage from anywhere in the galaxy," says Carla Kennedy, VP of marketing for Ancor, "but there are steps we can take in the meantime." A feature in Ancor's Gigworks switch called hard zoning is designed to let users cross-configure connections to expand their SANs without sacrificing performance. Jeff Allen, VP of network storage marketing for Sun, says that feature played a part in the company's decision to go with Ancor. He says customers choose SANs in part because they can pay for storage as they go rather than buy large products up front, so they need products that retain high levels of performance as capacity increases. Sun says the cost of the switches will be folded into its storage bundles, and declines to give standalone prices. It will say only that their costs will be competitive with standard switches. Marc Hansen, VP of system architecture for apparel manufacturer J. Crew in New York, says he will be more inclined to invest in a SAN "if Sun gets the price down to $3,000 per port." Sun will ship storage products with a renamed version of the switches during the second half of the year.