Protocol problems could be the answer, according to another of its OEMs. One of the features Brocade is touting in the 3800 is the ability to mesh together hundreds of the switches on one network. Brocade says it achieves this feat via support for the FCSW2 Fibre Channel protocol.
A Brocade OEM that has tested the product tells a different story. "The switch can support this protocol, with some tweaking, but this tweaking limits the switch to meshing together only 30 switches," says the source, who declined to be named.
The solution to the problem is to run the switch in Brocade mode," the source says; i.e., using its proprietary flow control software. with the proprietary feature invoked, as many as 239 switches can be meshed together on a single network.
Brocade is basically saying if you want to build a very large storage network, you better do it our way, with our software, or suffer the consequences, the source says.
It is not in Brocades best interests to have true interoperability, as this levels the playing field, comments John Lawler, storage analyst with Infonetics Research Inc..
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