The result of Brocade's $3 billion acquisition of Foundry is expected to present customers with a viable 
alternative to Cisco in the data center. As customers weigh the pros and cons of emerging data center technologies, such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet - which is being backed by Brocade and Cisco - a combined Foundry-Brocade wants to be on every Cisco customer's radar. But does Brocade-Foundry have what it takes to take on Cisco? Here's a quick roundup of what the analysts are saying:
According to an Associated Press story, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Ryan Hutchinson doesn't believe the news is a material threat to Cisco's LAN switching business. "We believe any strategic gains from having footholds in storage, LAN switching and carrier routing are likely long-term-focused and incremental gains will likely be immaterial to Cisco," he is quoted as saying in the AP story.
Another AP story suggests:
The acquisition promises to make Brocade a more well-rounded competitor to Cisco, but isn't likely to substantially dent Cisco's dominance because Foundry Networks, with $607 million in sales last year, is considered a niche player.
Meanwhile a SearchStorage story cites a research report by Wachovia analyst Aaron Rakers, who notes that the buy was financed with $1.4 billion in cash and $1.5 billion in debt, "resulting in a net-debt position," according to the story.
Nevertheless, Brocade believes the field is wide open for an alternative to Cisco as customers look to update their data center infrastructures.
Would a combined Brocade-Foundry make it on your radar?
* Read our bloggers' take on the union:
Reese: Dell Oro Group take on Foundry and Brocade merger
Morris: Brocade Buying Foundry...Has to be an FCoE Play
Lewis: Brocade Buys Foundry: Good Idea?
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Your Story Needs Correcting
Foundry didn't buy Brocade. Brocade bought Foundry.
"The result of Foundry's $3 billion acquisition of Brocade is ...."
Corrected
Thanks for pointing out the error. The story has been corrected.
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At time of market disruption
I think the real point is that we might be witnessing a market disruption point. Brocade / Foundry is not nearly as serious a threat as Juniper / Woven might be.
Brocade will flog Foundry to their storage customers, but Networkers nmight walk away, especially service providers who rely on Foundry for cheaper alternatives to Cisco - Brocade will look to charge a premium for their Storage equipment and features, will this translate for data networks ? Will a merger of storage and data networking achieve cost savings and new business ?
Now Juniper could move into this space, and potentially even penetrate the Enterprise to some extent. What if they bought Woven or Force 10 ?
I am thinking its the market disruption that Cisco will be managing and attacking, not the rise of Brocade.
http://etherealmind.com
How things change
Wasn't it like, oh I don't know, last week that Brocade was poo pooing the idea of FcOE as not even being close to ready for prime time when in fact a small OSM named EMC actually has an FCoE HBA that will be shipping shortly. Looks like a desperate move by two desperate companies. Funny how when Cisco had FCoE product ready in the Nexus platforms Brocade says it isn't viable. Why buy Foundry then? Good luck playing catch up.
Bone up, dude
Your comments shows your simple, linear (and severely uninformed) understanding of FCoE. FCoE isn't merely FC + Ethernet. That may sound nice, but it isn't reality. Reality is that it's a new protocol that looks, feels, behaves, quacks (whatever) like Fibre Channel. The underlying Ethernet part isn't the Ethernet that Foundry will be bringing to Brocade. It's a completely new technology that hasn't even been developed as a standard yet. Nobody's won in this space yet. Does Foundry help Brocade ultimately in bringing out a better FCoE product? Of course. But is it the reason Brocade bought Foundry? No.
Which minds me of joke
When is Ethernet not Ethernet ?
When it's Fibrechannel over Ethernet!
Oh, how we laughed.
http://etherealmind.com
Good acquisition for Brocade
What a great move for the Industry. I have been working with Foundry products for the last 3 years and I can tell you that Brocade won't regret this!
Foundry Switches are powerful products and in my opinion, the Command Line Interface is more reliable than Cisco's. Also, their products offer great performance.
I worked with Cisco products before and when I began working with Foundry, I tought I would need some time to adapt myself, but in fact, it was really easy to "Switch" to their World.
Now I just hope that Brocade won't change too much Foundry products. This would be a big mistake. I think that they need to continue offering the same type of products to keep actual Foundry customers in their courtyard.
I also hope that more Enterprises will give a try to Brocade / Foundry switches & router and find by themself how good they are.
This will also force Cisco to work harder on their product lines to keep their rank in the market.
More competition in this industry is welcomed!
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