My first reaction to Brocade buying Foundry yesterday was "hmmmmmmmmm". I was scratching my head as to why Brocade would want to jump into the highly commoditized LAN switching market, where Cisco dominates. What's the market differentiator? Why would I start buying LAN switches from Brocade all of sudden. Certainly they are having enough fun competing with Cisco in the SAN market, why jump into LAN switching? Juniper recently jumped into the LAN market and their sole differentiator was JunOS, not the hardware. So, what gives?
Then I started thinking there has to be some synergy that Brocade is looking for and that has to be FCoE. FCoE, if it's the success everyone is predicting it will be, has the ability to wreck the SAN market which relies on a lot of very expensive ports. FC ports are not cheap and I'm sure Brocade's profits are tied to that. But here comes FCoE where I can start connecting all my FC hosts to Ethernet, saving big bucks. Intel has even released a software FCoE stack so I can - at my own peril - use standard Ethernet NICs for FCoE. Yes, I'll still need a couple director level SAN switches at the core, but customers are still saving a ton of cash.
Plus, Brocade needed a way to protect their business model. If Brocade customers started buying Cisco Nexus 5000 switches to connect hosts at the access layer via FCoE, how long would it take Cisco to convince that customer to replace Brocade's director switches with a pair of Cisco MDS switches. Yeah, not too long. Then what is Brocade left with?
So, this should be an interesting play. If I am going to update my DC LAN environment with FCoE I have to use Cisco's new - and, um, pricey - Nexus line anyways. That's a change in architecture, not a normal evolution of the 6500 or 4500 series. So, if the cost is low enough for Brocade/Foundry FCoE and I already have a Brocade SAN, do I make the jump to Brocade? Might be worth the look.
More >From the Field blog entries:
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Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3-billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads a team of 10 engineers responsible for large-scale IT networking projects and architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP telephony, contact centers, and security. Michael is CCIE #11733 and recently became one of the first three Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) ever (#20080002). He has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo and is working on his MBA from NC State University. In 2008, he was awarded the Network Professional Association (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.
The opinions expressed in this Weblog are those of the writer and may not represent the opinions of Network World.
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Ethernet simplicity will win in data center
I agree, this acquisition confirms to me that Ethernet simplicity will be the long-term winner in the data center.
http://blog.tmcnet.com/the-hyperconnected-enterprise/data-center/brocade-foundry-acquisition-confirms-ethernet-simplicity-will-win.asp
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