Its an interesting point, but how many intelligent switch suppliers can the market support? There are at least seven of them last time we counted:
Troika's Terrell says the company's "super appliance" isnt like the above switches, as it combines the scaleability of a switch with the software functionality of an appliance. It could be used as a fabric switch, running software from a third-party software vendor, or embedded in an array, depending on how the OEM wants to use it, he says. This is still an unresolved question among the major storage array suppliers, which are deliberating over where functionality such as virtualization, remote replication, snapshotting, and volume management should reside.
"Troikas approach is not to be a standalone switch in the network... But its also partnering with the software players," says Gammill. It sounds to us like the company is hedging its bets, which maybe isnt a bad thing at this point.
All of the company's three founders [ed. note: how appropriate!] -- including Terrell, VP of hardware engineering Wayland Jeong, and VP of corporate resources Kevin Cox -- are still there. Troika, founded in 1998, has a headcount of about 70 today. The company's first CEO, Alan Skidmore, quit after the JNI transaction, as he disagreed with Troika's new direction (see Troika CEO Quits).
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