The Brocade 12000 still doesn't work as advertised. Problems continue at more than four sites that we know about. Seems the company wasn't quite ready to release when it did, and now the big OEMs have all sent out their letters to customers to warn them. EMC even makes people sign a waiver before installing the unit, saying that they understand that a very small amount of configuration options are tolerated, and that if they deviate at all, EMC is out of the loop. This after IBM sent a similar message last month.

Who else is high on the endangered species list? SanRise and Yotta Yotta come to mind.

Seagate is looking to spin out Xiotech. Xiotech doesn't appear too upset by the news.

EMC has finally been able to move out of its "not grown here" philosophy and made some big hires outside the ranks. Mark Lewis from Compaq is the most recent bigwig addition to a stellar lineup that also includes Microsoft's Pete Conway and BMC's Chris Gahagan. Maybe EMC has learned from George Steinbrenner?

Speaking of Microsoft, they're apparently on the hunt to acquire their way into the storage game. They were rumored to be courting CommVault, but were shut down. They tried to buy WQuinn last year, but lost out to Precise. Why all the activity? Because they aren't a storage company with their SAK for NAS alone - they need some real stuff. Maybe Legato? It would cheaply buy them a lot of higher-end customers.

AIG has a 3PARdata box, but hasn't plugged it in.

A group tried to buy Mylex from IBM supposedly for more money than LSI offered, but IBM couldn't get it done. LSI stole the business for around $30 million we're told. Now only Adaptec and LSI can offer RAID controllers to the masses.

Two different users e-mailed us to let us know how happy they were with their recent Sun T3 purchases. Merits mentioning since we don't think one - let alone two - people ever said nice things about the T3 before.

IBM is about to release two new Sharks. I wonder if they will give those away the same way they gave the first version away? On a positive note, IBM is selling a ton of the FAStT line from LSI Logic, and users are happy with the performance and cost of the product.

Network Appliance will - sooner or later - unveil its unified storage strategy, where a Filer will also support native Fibre Channel and iSCSI block connections, aiming to enable users to completely consolidate all storage requirements onto a single platform (theirs). We'd expect to hear more in September or October.

CNT is quietly becoming the world's biggest storage VAR. Their recent acquisition of Bi-Tech in the U.K. gives them solid footprint across the pond to provide multinational services. Rumor is they are looking for a new CEO, however.

Behind the Firewall is written by a team of industry insiders who, for obvious reasons, prefer to remain anonymous. If you have tips, send them to btf@storagemagazine.com.