Brocade unveils 10 Gigabit Ethernet San strategy

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Storage company Brocade is set to expand from Fibre Channel with the news it is to integrate 10Gbit/sec Ethernet and iSCSI into its San switches.

Speaking at a meeting with analysts, Brocade chief executive Michael Klayko said that the company has a roadmap for introducing the high-speed Ethernet technology into its Fibre Channel products which will be unveiled in the second half of this year.

He said the products will be built on technology it bought in its acquisition of Silverback Systems earlier this year. "You're going to see us incorporate it into the infrastructure that we are filling out for the future of the datacentre," he told analysts.

Klayko said that the company expected to see revenues of $250m (£127m) from 10Gbit/sec products in 2008. He said that diversification into 10Gbit/sec Ethernet and acquisitions the company has made would allow it to be part of a market worth $5.4bn (£2.7bn).

He was quick to reassure customers that the move to Ethernet and iSCSI would not mean a departure from its Fibre Channel roots.

"We see it as an extension to Fibre Channel. We do not believe that people will throw away their 13m ports of San," he said.

Brocade's vice president of worldwide sales Ian Whiting said that the recent acquisition of McData had meant that some customers had jumped ship and signed up with Cisco but now the deal had been finalised that "stopped that train".

He said that since the acquisition completed on 29 Jan, no further McData customers had gone over to other rivals, such as Cisco. However, Whiting did not say how many had left beforehand.

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