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Technology Stocks : EMC How high can it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: buck who wrote (9604)	3/15/2000 9:58:00 AM
From: Bob Frasca	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17183

buck: I have no doubt that McData's products support all of the fibre channel standards. I never stated otherwise. However, there is a difference between switched fabric and arbitrated loop which is relative to the way the switches interconnect and the devices connect to the switches. I'm not enough of a fibre channel techie to discuss the differences technically. While it's true that a single switch is technically a fabric, the ability to interconnect switches in various configurations, i.e. "cascading", "multi-staging" and "mesh" is critical for configuring a true fabric. While I'm sure that EMC is selling their Connectrix product, Connectrix is not a switch. It is essentially a SAN that contains, if I'm not mistaken, one or two fibre channel directors supporting up to 64 ports. This is a VERY high end product. However, you will note that there is a 64 port limitation. My understanding is that in a true switched fabric there is no such limitation. To the best of my knowledge, EMC does not sell a product that contains an 8 or 16 port fibre channel switch. In other words, it would appear that they are not yet participating in the low end of the SAN market. While it's true that McData sells 8 and 16 port fibre channel switches, I have never heard anywhere that these products are technically comparable to Ancor or Brocade's products. This is the reason why I have heard that EMC is looking at switches from other companies. You're right. My information comes from the Ancor, Brocade and related message boards. In addition, the possibility of an OEM relationship with EMC has been discussed on the last two Ancor earnings conference calls. It's no secret that Ancor has opened a new sales office in Southern New Hampshire, less than an hour from EMC corporate headquarters. Could be a coincidence... Bob

To: buck who wrote (9604)	3/15/2000 12:31:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17183

Buck, Here are a few excerpts that show the source for some of the McData talk..... "However, when we get to a director class product, 64-port solutions, a single backplane (Ancor) is a superior solution to a cascade (Brocade). We expect large installations to be aggregated on 64-port rather than 16 port modules. Ancor recently announced that they will begin marketing Inrange's 64-port solution by summer. Furthermore the incumbent in this segment, EMC (McData) has a director product that is a weak approximation to a FC switch. It does not feature any E_ or FL_ports. Ancor is well positioned to gain share at the high end. Furthermore, we expect the director class product to represent over half the FC switch revenue market by 2003. " PJ's Kumar said that in Nov. Message 12075022 So in Nov. McData directors had no E, or FL ports? ANCR site defines those ports as follows; Fabric Port Types All ports can assume the following states: ? F_port: Fabric ? FL_port: Fabric loop (public loop) ? E_port: Switch-to-switch So this means that McData couldn't hook up to loops, and no switch to switch connections. How big a fabric can they make? Now I don't know why McData wouldn't just add these ports in a new generation, but it also shows why Inrange, MTI, SUNW may be able to offer more functionality at a better price if EMC doesn't move things along. Any thoughts Buck or anyone?

To: buck who wrote (9604)	4/28/2000 10:40:00 AM
From: Bob Frasca	Respond to of 17183

Buck: Back on the 15th of March we exchanged a couple of messages about EMC and their fibre channel future. In light of this weeks events I thought that revisiting this exchange might be in order. In post #9604 you said, in part: Finally, where did you hear/get the rumors of EMC actively shopping for another FC switch OEM? The only place, and I mean ONLY, where I have heard this is on the ANCR message boards, and references to those posts. I've seen nothing in the news or at end-user sites to make me believe that EMC is anything but satisfied with McData. An excerpt from my response in post #9607: To the best of my knowledge, EMC does not sell a product that contains an 8 or 16 port fibre channel switch. In other words, it would appear that they are not yet participating in the low end of the SAN market. While it's true that McData sells 8 and 16 port fibre channel switches, I have never heard anywhere that these products are technically comparable to Ancor or Brocade's products. This is the reason why I have heard that EMC is looking at switches from other companies. You're right. My information comes from the Ancor, Brocade and related message boards. In addition, the possibility of an OEM relationship with EMC has been discussed on the last two Ancor earnings conference calls. It's no secret that Ancor has opened a new sales office in Southern New Hampshire, less than an hour from EMC corporate headquarters. Could be a coincidence... I had forgotten that EMC (through Data General) was already selling Brocade's eight port switch. It was also interesting to note that Brocade has joined the Fibre Alliance albeit belatedly. They are getting a lot of interoperability pressure. Another rumor is that Ancor is about to unveil a 16 port, 2 GB ASIC. Some say as early as this summer, some say by the end of the year. This will dramatically lower the cost per port and make 64 and 128 port directors much more cost effective. It is said that one 64 port director can replace a dozen 16 port switches. I don't really understand how that is possible but some of the technical guys on the Ancor thread say it is so. I am not attempting to hype Ancor here. While I am an Ancor long, I recognize that it is a high risk play. I mention all of this because Bill Fischofer has discussed his storage-centric universe here and these switches will be at the core. He has mentioned CSCO as being a gorilla in this market but I must point out that CSCO isn't even a player in the SAN or NAS markets at this time. At least, not to my knowledge. Will CSCO join the fray via an acquisition? The barriers to entry in the fibre channel switch market are quite high.