Imperative

The startup formerly known as SANchips has resurfaced as Imperative Networks with plans to ship a low-end multiprotocol switch next quarter (see SANchips and SANchips Switches Gears).

Heres a quick review: Israeli-based SANchips first surfaced early last year to pitch a switch-on-a-chip that would reduce cost and time-to-market for Fibre Channel switches. The idea was to sell the chip to switch companies, or those looking to become switch companies. But there were no takers, and when we last caught up with CEO Avi Shillo in September, he'd changed course and was preparing a move over to the SMB market.

Imperative has followed that path, and Shillo says it will ship a switch with iSCSI and Fibre Channel capability in hopes of cashing in on an anticipated boom for IP SANs on the low end.

"When we were looking to make deals with switch companies I realized there were not that many Fibre Channel switch vendors,” Shillo says. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we become one?’ ”

One reason there aren’t many Fibre Channel switch guys out there is because it’s a tough market to crack, especially since Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) elbowed its way in over the last few years. Cisco, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA) already have multiprotocol switches out (see Brocade Ships Multiprotocol Router, McData Extends Router Family, and Cisco Readies Multiprotocol Switch).But Shillo says Imperative is looking to take on entry-level switches from Brocade and QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC) that lack iSCSI capability (see Brocade Dazzler Starts Low and QLogic Pulls a Switch Deal).

Imperative will also bump up against switches from Crossroads Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CRDS) and Sanrad Inc. and a myriad of iSCSI gateways and bridges (see Crossroads Heads Down New Road, Report: SAN Routing Hype Won't Help, Sanrad Intros iSCSI Systems, and Bridging the iSCSI Gap).

Shillo says his switch will replace the need for an iSCSI gateway on top of a Fibre Channel switch. Imperative has a family of switches with configurations that include eight or 12 Fibre Channel and four or eight iSCSI ports. List prices range from $2,390 to $6,790.

The family is called the Intelligent Multiprotocol Switch, but that’s a misnomer for now. Much of the intelligence is planned for future versions. For example, replication and snapshots are on the roadmap for next year. The same goes for FCIP and iFCP for the WAN, which the major switch vendors support. “I think the need now is for manageability and scaleability,” Shillo says. “We delayed intelligence about two quarters.”

Imperative already has gone farther than SANchips in product development. Shillo says he has switches at five beta sites and lined up 35 resellers internationally. Now he’s looking for OEMs. In any case, Shillo expects to officially launch at Storage Networking World in April.Otherwise, Imperative Networks looks a lot like it did before the name change. Shillo says he still has 15 employees with plans to add 10 this year. There was one notable addition: Chief Architect Yoav Flint joins from former SAN extension startup SANcastle Technologies (see LightSand Buys SANcastle and SANcastle Launches FC Router). Also, Shillo intends to open a U.S. headquarters in Silicon Valley when the company launches.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch