Brocade must tweak its channel programs to accommodate Tapestry. OEMs like Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL),
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) will likely be good channels, because they sell both servers and storage. Others, such as EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)
and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), dont appear to be natural fits for Tapestry because they dont sell servers.
Riggsbee says no OEM deals have been struck yet for ARM, although Brocade is talking with all the major server vendors. Before putting it in their hands, we wanted to put it in trial production with several key customers, he says.
No OEM deals have been announced for the WAFS product either, although Buiocchi says Brocade is selling it today and expects to have OEM and VAR deals by the fall.
There was talk of Brocades switch roadmap today, but it related to previous announcements. Brocade plans a 256-port, 4-Gbit/s director, a 4-Gbit/s blade server switch, and a second-generation multiprotocol router with improved FCIP performance.
Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch