Brocade Tops Switch Sales

In its earnings report tonight, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) announced the only significant revenue increase among the major switch vendors last quarter.

Brocade logged revenue of $155.6 million and net income of $18.6 million or $0.07 earnings per share, beating Thomson Financial First Call consensus estimates of $154 million and $0.06.

Brocades revenue grew 4 percent from the previous quarter after Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) storage revenue dropped 2 percent and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA) sales were sequentially flat from last quarter (see Cisco Storage Slips and McData Merely Mediocre).

Brocade’s revenue increased 13 percent year-over-year, dwarfing McData’s 4 percent growth. Cisco’s SAN revenue increased 160 percent from last year, when its revenue was negatively impacted by production problems.

Brocade apparently benefited from a full-scale product rollout last quarter, when it began selling its SilkWorm multiprotocol router through OEM partners EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), and Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK), and its SilkWorm 24000 director through Hitachi Data Systems (HDS). (See Brocade Ships Multiprotocol Router, EMC, HP Add Brocade SAN Router, and HDS Certifies Brocade.) Earlier this year, Brocade started shipping new high- and low-end SAN switches, and a switch module for IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) blade servers (see Brocade Launches Meteor, Brocade Dazzler Starts Low, and IBM, Brocade Tie SAN Knot).The new 128-port director and entry-level switch apparently fueled Brocade’s growth at both the high and low ends during the quarter. In contrast, CEO Greg Reyes says Brocade’s revenue dropped sequentially in its traditionally strong midrange segment.

Despite the growth, Brocade execs don't forecast much of a sales increase next quarter. Guidance is for revenue from $157 million to $163 million as new products continue to ramp.

"It takes a couple of quarters to hit the sweet spot of any product cycle," CFO Tony Canova said today.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch