Says Q1 SAN sales drop not due to focus on FCoE, channel conflict with HP and IBM
Cisco says the Q1 slide in its FibreChannel SAN business is not due to preoccupation with FibreChannel over Ethernet, as some observers — and the market share numbers themselves — suggest. It is also not a result of Cisco’s entry into the server business and channel conflict with resellers HP and IBM.
Rather, Cisco just got beat by Brocade in migrating customers to 8Gbps with a more expensive upgrade path.
“We are selling more 4G ports than Brocade,” says Rajiv Ramaswami, vice president and general manager of the Data Center Switching Technology Group at Cisco. “We are earlier in the migration to 8G. What we expect to see in the next couple of quarters is (more migration to 8G) and that should benefit Cisco.”
Ramaswami dismissed the notion that HP and IBM have cut Cisco off too. He says Cisco still partners with the companies’ storage businesses.
He also says Cisco has plans to add 16Gbps ports to the MDS SAN switch line.
That’s not to say FCoE isn’t a distraction, though. FCoE switch sales are just starting to ramp at Cisco and at $2,000 or more per port list, it should be a lucrative ride.
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