Brocade on FCoE: Baby Steps

Brocade is to networked storage what Kleenex is to tissue paper, a mainstay in the data center that has become a dominant brand synonymous with SAN fabrics. Considering the huge impact that Fibre Channel over Ethernet is expected to have on the storage market, Brocade's position on the subject is of interest to everyone. So I asked Marty Lans, Brocade's senior director of product marketing, if there is consensus in the industry about the adoption of FCoE.

Lans's first response was that convergence on FCoE is going to happen, but my interpretation of his response is Brocade clearly understands that convergence is a multiyear process consisting of millions of baby steps, rather than a big-bang type of event where a new CEE/FCoE universe explodes into existence. Lans identified a few of those milestones, which I put into chronological order below:

How is Brocade positioned to support the transition to converged fabrics? According to Lans, the company is well along in developing a comprehensive suite of end-to-end (adapter + switch + management) solutions for CEE/FCoE server-to-storage, server-to-server, and core fabrics. I believe that Brocade is also serious about creating competitive advantage by taking features that network administrators value -- such as QOS, security, and performance -- and optimizing their capability across an end-to-end Brocade network. And if Tuesday's announcement that IBM will re-brand the Brocade enterprise IP networking family of products is any indicator, OEMs really like Brocade's vision and product road map.When asked when Brocade expects converged storage networks to become mainstream, Lans responded that adoption is anticipated in the 2010-2011 timeframe. My discussion with Lans reminded me that Brocade is a customer-driven company that works closely with its end-users and OEMs every day. This has rewarded it with a laser focus on delivering solutions to problems that customers need today, as well as a compelling CEE/FCoE product road map that will help its OEMs compete against Cisco in the future.

Frank Berry is CEO of IT Brand Pulse, a company that surveys enterprise IT managers about their perceptions of vendors and their products. Berry is a 30 year veteran of the IT industry, including senior executive positions with QLogic and Quantum.

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