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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gus who wrote (3734)	8/1/2001 7:39:51 PM
From: Douglas Nordgren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

I think, however, that Compaq is going to have a harder time selling larger, heterogeneous SANs because Compaq itself has limited experience supporting the servers/storage systems of its rivals. Moreover, 70% of Compaq SANs are deployed by resellers who are compensated on the basis of their ability to move Compaq merchandise. As you know Gus, McData stated in their conference call that they expect the ED6064 to account for substantially all of their director revenue by the end of the year. The ED6064 leapt the ED5000 in revenue in Q2, the first quarter of availability, to the tune of ~$30 million. Maybe Compaq can buck up sales for the ED5000, but I'm inclined to view it as a product that is facing a phase-out, and Compaq is fielding fire sale products in their Brocade SW6400 and McData ED5000 offerings. Coupled with Compaq's poor service record, I can't see this as an attractive package for the larger heterogeneous SAN market. Appearing soon at your local Compaq VAR - Cheap SANs With Lousy Service. Got lottsa ports tho. Douglas

To: Gus who wrote (3734)	8/1/2001 8:23:47 PM
From: pprobinson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

What I think Compaq is trying to do by supporting McData's directors -- which are generally found in core SANs supporting high-end servers, storage systems and mission-critical applications -- is to improve its ability to capture the departmental and workgroup SANs, but that's a very difficult strategy to execute because the vendor that controls the core SAN has a very good chance at controlling the edge SAN market too. Note the increased number of field reports of very aggressive pricing by EMC that makes absolute sense when one considers the importance of controlling the core SANs as a way to boost future growth not only at the core but at the edge as well. Your above statement makes alot of sense. It also explains why Brocade wants to control the core as well, with the SW12000. Some quick questions: Do you think the 12000 will ever make it out of beta testing? If it does test out, do you think that it will be interoperable with Mcdata's installed base of ED-5000's and 6400's? Does the hot code load feature of Mcdata's directors necessarily make them incompatable with the SW12000? Finally, would there be any incentive for this installed base to use such a switch if it were compatable? Or is Brocade looking to market this switch to the masses of Compaq customers who may be buying their first director and are not so concerned with RAS?