So will VSANs from Cisco, or SAN Volume Controllers (SVCs) from IBM, or Storage Virtualization Routers from EMC, or even TagmaStore from HDS-if you want a different kind of vendor lock-in. LSAN, promises Brocade in its best Mel-Gibson-as-William-Wallace brogue, will heal the wounds and unite the SANs. Good news for those who, as a result of bad karma or poorly conceived mergers, confronted multiple SANs that had about as much chance of working and playing together as two toddlers with one Tickle Me Elmo.
#BROCADE SAN SWITCH COMPETITORS SOFTWARE#
Nor did he mention bridging solutions from companies such as Crossroads or ATTO, or virtualization software solutions such as DataCore’s SANSymphony, which cost a lot less and do not require joining oneself at the hip with a particular vendor.Īccording to the story, Brocade’s “uberSwitch” promises to unite disparate SANs with greater ease than was possible before. However, he made no mention of comparable technology products from competitors such as Cisco Systems, which have been in the market for a lot longer than the Brocade offering. After what I seriously doubt was very extensive testing, he rated the technology a whopping 8.6 out of 10. Now, Brocade is wrapping itself in the rhetoric of inclusion and seeking to provide a path to SAN unification that has all the credibility of, say, a Ukrainian election.
The efforts of vendors (notably Brocade) to become the leader of the Fibre Channel world have fostered the implementation of Fibre Channel standards on switch platforms in ways that guarantee non-interoperability between the products of competing vendors. He referred to the product as a “Superswitch” and touted its value in uniting SANs heretofore separated by, more than anything else, vendor greed. Well known for his Pollyannish views of really bad storage products from brand name vendors/advertisers, the writer in question gave yet another glowing review, this time to Brocade for its recently announced Silkworm Multiprotocol Router. A recent column, however, by a technology trade press pundit got my goat. Can a new switch from Brocade ready unite different SANs based on non-interoperable switches from different vendors?įar be it from me to criticize fellow industry observers-we all need to make a living in these difficult times.