That said, Cisco may have the edge because its application services module has been designed as an integrated module for its Fibre Channel switch. Brocade's offering will initially be delivered as a separate 16-port device, though the company insists it will look and smell like a member of the SilkWorm fabric.
Meanwhile, McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA), the other notable SAN switch incumbent vendor, has sketched virtualization into its roadmap and expects to deliver an application module for its director-class switches next year. "When the market is going to be spending money on this, we know we'll be there," says Mike Gustafson, McData's senior VP of marketing.
As the big vendors proceed to tie up with each other, virtualization switch startups may be left in the margins. They may be able to find other paths to market, but without securing deals with the storage systems OEMs their opportunities will be much more limited. Startups in this segment include Candera Inc., Maranti Networks, MaXXan Systems Inc., Sanera Systems Inc., and Troika Networks. So far, none of these players has demonstrated anywhere near the degree of traction with the major OEMs that Brocade and Cisco have (see Candera in the Wind, Sanera Turns On the Juice, Troika Strikes Back, MaXXan Axxes Staff, Maranti Hires SAN Virtuoso, and Smart SAN Switches: Not This Year).
The Veritas X-Factor
On the software front, Veritas is the wild card in the tangle of partnerships surrounding network-hosted storage applications. In its favor, the company owns 70 percent of the market for volume managers today, and it has already established strong relationships with Cisco and Brocade.
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