R.W. Baird analyst Daniel Renouard agreed that initial signs from the McData acquisition are encouraging, although he warned that Brocade is not out of the woods yet. "Despite very well-prepared integration planning and execution to date, we remain wary of possible integration issues given the sheer scale of the acquisition," he said in a note today.
The newly merged firms may nonetheless find strength in adversity. "We do believe the fight against common enemy Cisco has become a rallying cry for the combined company that may overcome some cultural differences," said Renouard.
Certainly, the full revenue impact of the McData acquisition is yet to be revealed. Brocade posted a solid set of results in its most recent quarterly report although the vendor closed its first quarter 2007 just two days before finalizing its purchase of McData. Figures from the combination will come next quarter. (See Brocade Boasts Big Quarter and Brocade Reports Q1.)
Brocade, which touts a set of products for file sharing, may also receive a boost from the launch of Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system. The vendor is one of Redmond's key partners for WAFS technology and A.G. Edwards' Rakers thinks that this could provide a revenue boost. (See Brocade Intros Software WAFS.) "Brocade's ability to have its file services tightly integrated with Microsoft solutions does look to offer a meaningful differentiation versus competitors in this emerging market," he said.
Execs on last night's call also touched on the topic InfiniBand, although they refused to make a firm commitment to the technology. (See InfiniBand Take 2, Interop: Mixed Messages on InfiniBand, and InfiniBand Ambivalence.) Don Jaworski, the vendor's vice president of product development, said that although it's committed to 10-Gbit/s Ethernet, Brocade would also consider InfiniBand. "We are somewhat agnostic about the protocol -- we think that it's 10 GigE, but, if it's InfiniBand, we will go there," he said, adding that this decision will be governed by customer demand.
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