Like Cisco and Brocade, McData had to acquire technology for intelligent switches -- which build functionality such as backup, restore, virtualization, and data replication directly into the server. McData got it by investing $6 million into Aarohi Inc. for its FabricStream technology last August (see Aarohi Announces Funding... Again and McData Signs Deal With Aarohi).
The late start didnt cost McData, considering none of the switch vendors will ship their first-generation intelligent switches until the end of this year or early next.
If you talk to Cisco, Brocade, and McData, theyre still vague as to when theyll be available, Gahagan says. I would say were still a couple of quarters away from having the switches. Then well have to take time to certify them. Were probably about three or four quarters away from shipping them to customers.
Why does it take so long? This is complicated stuff, says McDatas VP of operations Peter Dougherty. Now the major onus is on the software developers such as EMC, Veritas, and others to embed storage provisioning capabilities," he says. "I think well see early deployments late this year, with more adoptions throughout 05.
Veritas has yet to announce plans to develop and port software for McDatas switches, but Dougherty calls the EMC announcement the first of many.
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