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FC Market Gets Rattled: Page 2 of 2

The 29-page "Fibre Channel Market Update," researched by storage industry analyst Alan Radding, breaks down the strategy and vision of each of the major players in the sector and explores industry trends. It includes a comparison of recent switch prices as well as detailed features tables comparing 16 switches and 21 host bus adapters.

The public companies analyzed in the report include Brocade, Cisco, McData, QLogic, CNT (Nasdaq: CMNT), Emulex Corp. (NYSE: ELX), JNI Corp. (Nasdaq: JNIC), and Vixel Corp. (Nasdaq: VIXL). Startups covered include Maranti Networks, MaXXan Systems Inc., Sandial Systems Inc., and Sanera Systems Inc.

Other highlights from the July report:

  • The Fibre Channel switch market remains positioned for a strong 42 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2007.
  • Interoperability and price remain the two biggest pain points for corporate SAN buyers.
  • While deployments of so-called smart SAN switches remain at least a year away, vendors are aggressively positioning now.
  • SAN switch startups have gained marginal traction to date, and bottom-tier players have exited the space.
  • iSCSI and other IP storage protocols will complement FC, not replace it -- at least in the near term.

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch

The current Byte and Switch Insider report -- "Fibre Channel Market Update" -- is available here