Nathan, I agree with Bob F. that companies like Brocade are no threat to EMC. They make no storage, just switches. Well, "just switches" doesn't do them justice, because fibre channel switches are a big deal, but they're not storage. They in fact, probably help companies like EMC sell more storage because their products enhance each other so well. Here's an article from EMC's website that mentions Brocade (about halfway down).
emc.com
EMC Welcomes IBM AIX Users to the World of Enterprise Storage Networks
EMC Enables IBM RS/6000 and SP Servers to Participate in an Enterprise Storage Network
HOPKINTON, Mass. - January 17, 2000 - EMC Corporation, the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software and services, today announced immediate availability of the EMC Fibre Channel Interface Kit for AIX. The new interface kit enables servers running IBM's AIX operating system to connect via switched Fibre Channel into an EMC Enterprise Storage Network (ESN). EMC Enterprise Storage Networks provide the foundation for customers to build their business around information, regardless where -- or in what format -- it was created.
Mark Ward, EMC Vice President of Global Marketing, said, "EMC has taken a decisive lead in making storage the foundation of IT infrastructure. Today's announcement opens high-end IBM AIX systems to an entirely new world of value, extending the benefits of EMC Enterprise Storage to more of the enterprise. ESN now enables the use of information to remain distributed on AIX servers across the enterprise, while the management of the information - its structure, availability, and security - remains under the control of a single infrastructure."
Dwight Beeson, Chief of Information Technology Services at the Library of Congress, said, "Our vision is to provide complete and direct library access for all of Congress. To this point, we've been constrained by the available connectivity options for our numerous distributed IBM RS/6000 servers. The EMC Fibre Channel Interface Kit for AIX has worked flawlessly and, with it, EMC has broken these resources free, giving us the ability to create an enterprise storage network that spans the entire Capitol Hill."
Sean Derrington, Program Director at Stamford, Connecticut-based META Group, said, "Fibre Channel switching is revolutionizing the relationship of servers to storage. It will provide new levels of performance, new levels of information protection by giving pools of servers access to pools of protected information, and new levels of information asset management built on the storage attributes of capacity, bandwidth and connectivity. The ability to safely and easily deploy and redeploy these three assets is the promise of Fibre Channel switching. Furthermore, integration and management of AIX, and other operating systems that support full Fibre Channel switching, protects customers' investments and advances the move to a comprehensive storage infrastructure."
Through the immediate availability of the EMC Fibre Channel Interface Kit for AIX, all PCI bus-based IBM RS/6000 and SP servers now support industry standard Fibre Channel switch (FC-SW) connectivity to EMC's Connectrix high-end Fibre Channel director. Connectrix offers switched connectivity between EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems and heterogeneous, distributed servers. In addition, EMC has qualified the new EMC Fibre Channel Interface Kit for AIX to work with Brocade's SilkWorm 2000 family of Fibre Channel switches.
ESN provides a single infrastructure that exploits the power of information regardless of its location. ESN comprises a dedicated, high-speed network that uses standard network-attached storage capabilities (e.g. IP) and standard channel technology (e.g. ESCON, Fibre Channel, SCSI and others), enabling customers to weave together heterogeneous storage, switches, hubs and servers into a single, easily managed, centralized information infrastructure. ESNs consolidate distributed information from departments and business units throughout the enterprise, and from remote locations over local- or wide-area networks.
Last April, EMC and Groupe Bull announced availability of the first solutions that enable Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) connectivity between servers running the AIX operating system and EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems. Today's announcement builds on that capability with the integration of AIX servers into a switched Fibre Channel enterprise storage network.
EMC Corporation, a FORTUNE 500 company based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the world's technology and market leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent enterprise storage systems, software, networks and services. The company's products store, retrieve, manage, protect and share information from all major computing environments, including Unix, Windows NT, Linux and mainframe platforms. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. For further information about EMC and its storage solutions, EMC's corporate web site can be accessed at emc.com.
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This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) component quality and availability; (ii) delays in the development of new technology and the transition to new products; (iii) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, in the computer storage and server markets; (iv) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines; (v) economic trends in various geographic markets and fluctuating currency exchange rates; (vi) deterioration or termination of the agreements with certain of the Company's resellers or OEMs; (vii) the uneven pattern of quarterly sales; (viii) risks associated with strategic investments and acquisitions; (ix) Year 2000 issues; and (x) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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