Storage OEMs Warm Up to Cisco
Storage systems vendors' support for Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) new MDS 9000 Fibre Channel switches is shaping up, albeit slowly, and the interoperability lab at Storage Networking World (SNW) this week in Orlando, Fla., provided the perfect metaphor for Cisco's ability to coerce support.
The show organizers built two storage networks -- a principle SAN, through which all the traffic and demos at the show flowed, and a secondary backup SAN, in case the primary one failed.
The main SAN integrated a Cisco MDS 9509 director switch at the core and several Cisco 9216, McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA - message board), and Inrange Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: INRG - message board) Fibre Channel switches connected to it using the E-port standard. Storage arrays and servers from Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM - message board), EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC - message board), and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ - message board) were connected to the Cisco 9509 director.
Applications running over this network included storage virtualization, server clustering, business continuity and disaster recovery, and various IP storage demos with additional edge switches and security servers from other vendors.
But where was Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD - message board) in all this, you ask? On a little SAN all by itself, it turns out. Brocade’s SilkWorm 12000 core switch and several of the company’s FC switches provided the backup SAN for the show.
"Brocade would have to do things to its switch to make it interoperate with eveyone else, but it chose not to," said Jonathan Donaldson, technical marketing engineer at Cisco, adding, "There’s not much traffic going over the Brocade SAN, as the primary one is doing just fine." Brocade representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Cisco experienced Brocade's interoperability tactics firsthand when it realized the company was only interested in helping Cisco build products that would connect exclusively to Brocade switches. Needless to say, that partnership ended in tears (see Cisco and Brocade: This Means War).
Now, the SNW demo paints an interesting picture of how the SAN switch market is evolving, with Cisco carving out its position through standards-based interoperability with the other switch players. Its channel to market is also gradually falling into line, although the major storage OEMs are hesitant to release specific details.
"We're going to test their switch in our labs," says Mark Lewis, EMC's CTO and executive VP of new ventures. "Cisco's an immediate, credible player, so you have to support them." He adds, "Once we qualify them, they become a potential supplier to EMC. At a certain point it comes down to pricing and terms... Regardless, we're going to support them because whether we sell it, or Cisco sells it, it will be going into our customers' environments."
Dave Roberson, president and COO of HDS, told us in a recent interview, "Cisco will probably be an important player in the market, based on their track record in the past. So we'll want to work with them in the same way we work with others." (See our interview with Roberson.)
As a reseller of the HDS Lightning system, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - message board) has the option to resell anything HDS qualifies and brings to market with that product. However, "Sun itself has no specific plans to qualify or resell the Cisco switch at this time," says Russ Fellows, strategic marketing manager at Sun.
IBM, on the other hand, has a long-standing relationship with Cisco, cemented in August 1999 when it sold all its network patents to Cisco in a $2 billion deal. Cisco picked up all of IBM’s network equipment customers, and in return it sources many of its chip components from IBM.
According to a background source at IBM, Big Blue has plans to sell Cisco's MDS 9000 switches. "Volume and pricing have not been worked out yet," the source says. Officially, IBM says it is "evaluating the product."
"IBM Global Services supports almost anything Cisco sells in its product line, so a deal between these two would make sense," says Steve Denegri, analyst at RBC Capital Markets. In a note to investors today, RBC says system and storage OEMs appear to be facing a "cooperate-or-compete dilemma," and the analyst firm’s channel contacts are saying that buying decisions are being deferred in anticipation of Cisco’s entry. In this instance, RBC analysts agree with Goldman Sachs & Co. that this appears to have contributed to Brocade’s October quarter shortfall (see Brocade Eats Crow).
Meanwhile, Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK - message board) says it's testing the MDS 9000 switches, but has not qualified them; a StorageTek spokesman says the company has not yet determined whether it will OEM or resell the switches. HP representatives did not respond by press time.
RBC concludes that Cisco is "putting the wood behind the arrow" on its strategic commitment to storage. "Brocade and McData may need to accelerate their upper-layer efforts and may be forced to acquire emerging system or silicon alternatives," the firm says.
— Jo Maitland, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch
www.byteandswitch.com |
