Reyes did seize the opportunity to take a swipe at one of his competitors QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC) and its recent price cutting measures. They are desperate; they have no OEM customers so they are giving it away," he said. Qlogic recently lowered its price point for 2-Gbit/s switches in an effort to gain market share before Brocade releases its 2-Gbit/s switches, expected later this year (see Is Brocade's SilkWorm Losing the Thread?).
Answering questions about the potential threat of IP storage on legacy Fibre Channel technology, Reyes said, The economic slowdown has put a wet blanket on to the move to new protocols... Our installed base will be so massive by the time IP or InfiniBand becomes a reality, that no company will be in a position to compete with us on infrastructure or applications. He also said the drop in price of 1-Gbit/s products as 2-Gbit/s emerges will further buttress the iSCSI offerings.
In the real world, of course, there is a villain not to be taken lightly: Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is quietly plotting to take Brocade head on with a giant SAN switch referred to internally as the Andiamo project (see Ciscos Secret SAN Strategies Revealed and All Eyes on Cisco).
Reyes said that the noise about SCSI over IP being disruptive to FC had dissipated. Well. Not if you count the hundreds of thousands of dollars in venture capital pouring into startups planning to compete with Brocade, it hasn't (see Eric the Intransa Gent and Mad MaXXan at the SANdrome).
Perhaps Reyes should borrow this one from The Tick, too: Don't count your weasels before they pop, dink!
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