Fibre Channel Shake 'n Bake

5:55 PM -- Brocade's earnings report last night contrasts with Cisco's veiled references to its Fibre Channel switch business last week. (See Brocade Eyes SEC Settlement and Cisco Distracted?) Is there a shakeout in the offing?

Signs point that way. While Cisco reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in storage revenues compared with Brocade's 5 percent, Cisco's figure really reflects a steep sequential decrease (29 percent by one analyst's estimate), compared with a 17 percent sequential increase for Brocade.

Is Cisco losing ground to its rivals? We'll get the full picture when McData weighs in with its quarterly report March 9.

Some appear to be taking sides already. In our latest storage poll, over 50 percent of 90-odd respondents think Cisco's backing out of the FC market. A full 83 percent see Brocade eating its lunch. And nearly three-quarters of respondents think that's just fine: Brocade's legal tangle doesn't bug them a bit.

By the way, there's still time to add your views to the poll: Just click here.Of course, if the plates are shifting in the FC switch market, that could signal other developments as well. Market success criteria could be shifting. And for the first time in years, there may be room for new players to emerge.

It's going to be an interesting spring.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch

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