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McData Munches Market Share: Page 2 of 3

QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), which holds the No. 3 spot in the fabric switch segment, increased its port shipments 5 percent in the second quarter, according to Dell'Oro. Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), which just started shipping its FC switches in the second quarter, comes in fourth (see FC Market Gets Rattled). The research firm discloses vendor rankings and quarterly growth, but not market share figures.

McData first introduced the Sphereon 4500, which provides 8, 16, or 24 ports, one year ago with a strategy explicitly designed to undercut Brocade (see McData Lowers Boom on Brocade). It launched the 4300, which provides between four and 12 ports, in August (see McData Swings Switches Lower).

Analysts have praised the architecture of the Sphereon family of switches as providing a low-cost, single-ASIC design that allows McData to compete very aggressively on price-per-port (see McData Picks Brocade's Pocket).

In addition to delivering a competitive FC fabric switch, McData has greatly improved its ability to meet the needs of resellers, says Jeff Brandes, VP and GM of distribution operations for storage and security software distributor Network Engines Inc. based in Canton, Mass.

"McData has steadily, over the past two years, recognized the importance of the channel," he says. "The switch vendors have a large OEM component, and balancing that has been hard. McData's been good at managing it."