Switches & Startups Top List

1:45 PM -- This time of year, publications love to tell readers what was so important over the past 12 months. Of course, were as guilty as anybody else, although we do it in a more astute and entertaining fashion than the rest. (At least, we like to think we do.)

We also like to know what our readers think, and our latest poll shows most readers who responded were torn between two 2006 stories when choosing the biggest. First, was the Brocade-McData deal, cited by more than one-third (35 percent) of respondents. The second biggest story was startups going public, picked by 21 percent.

Of less interest were stories dealing with high drama at Hewlett-Packard (16 percent) and EMC (10 percent), and SEC crackdowns (10 percent).

These results aren’t much of a surprise. Stories about switches and startups have always generated a lot of interest on Byte and Switch . Of course, there will be fewer switch companies and startups in 2007, thanks to BrocData and the volume of startups that have gone public or been acquired over the past year.

But we don’t think interest in these companies will wane. The battle between Brocade and Cisco for McData customers, the struggles/success of the new IPOs, and integration efforts of large storage companies who bought smaller ones bear close watching in 2007.— Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch