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

To: J Fieb who wrote (25695)	1/20/2000 1:01:00 PM
From: ShamukE	Respond to of 29386

If someone is good at evaluations and has time on their hands, why not do a spread of all the switch makers?

To: J Fieb who wrote (25695)	1/20/2000 1:28:00 PM
From: George Dawson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

"So they got invited but said no thanks. Their answer, "We are a little CSCO and don't want interop." J Fieb, Where did you hear this? If it is accurate, I remember IBM doing the same thing with PCs. Also per previous links here and a paper to be delivered by Ruwart, I believe we have seen that Ancor and Brocade switches can be used in the same SAN. George D.

To: J Fieb who wrote (25695)	1/20/2000 9:30:00 PM
From: Technocrat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

RE: Interop and Fibre Alliance (EMC) This is my take on things based on conversations from reliable people. EMC is a well run company with extraordinary management. Their CEO has a lot of clout and a sharp tongue. When he speaks, everyone listens like the old EF Hutton commercials :-) Anyways, EMC plans on growing by leaps and bounds. Some people would argue they are pretty big right now, but the future goals are huge. Storage has plenty of room to absorb serious money. EMC wants even a bigger share of the action than they have now. To get the highest margins in the computer industry you must follow in the footsteps of Bill Gates: namely, sell software as opposed to hardware. Selling fancy software packages on a CDROM at several hundred thousand dollars a pop sure beats the heck out of selling a big box with the worries of returns, revenue recognition, manufacturing, part shortages, etc., etc. OK, so what does this have to do with interop, Brocade, and Ancor? If EMC wants to sell their "Command Center" software, it should work seamlessly with the company's Symmetrix box and FC switches pretty much across the board. You manage and control the hardware for switches using a SMNP standard called a MIB. See emc.com As I understand the score, McData is MIB 1.5 compliant; Brocade had their own very strange MIB; and EMC wants everybody to gravitate to MIB 2.2. Ancor is in the Fibre Alliance, so one would hope they got the message and would be willing the carry the water with the SANbox. It would be a nice area of questioning for the CC (hint, hint). I would not be surprised if EMC did not rip out the software components of the Brocade switch to see if they could use the remaining hardware parts for internal testing of switching speeds (latency and all that). EMC followed this pattern with McData switches for reasons I never quite understood. In summary, I read the recent EMC announcement about a test kit for the Brocade product as a slam---not a big boost. I guess the press release is in the eye of the beholder. By Brocade refusing the get with the program regarding sensible MIBs, they are costing EMC a ton of money and lots of ire. If I were the CEO of Brocade playing the short-term gain at the expense of long term relationships, I would be selling my options in $30M clips at every opportunity. 80% market share must look impossible to maintain no matter how many PR releases you generate. Perceptions are everything to Reyes right now. Making switches interop with others brands is the last thing he wants to do.