Brocade may have survived Nishan, but now it is trying to figure out how to hold of Cisco. Next month, Cisco and Veritas will finally announce their long-rumored deal to port Volume Manager to the MDS 9000 series switches. Brocade and Veritas have been talking about a similar deal, but so far, nothing is definite. Veritas is trying to preempt any thoughts EMC might have about getting its software onto one of the emerging switch platforms.
Speaking of EMC... Boy can they cause mayhem when they try. Their DMX announcement last month had competitors scurrying around to pooh-pooh the stuff even before it came out. Say what you want about the bad boys in Hopkinton, but they still draw the biggest reaction.
Did you see IBM's announcement to combat DMX? It said Shark would soon be the fastest box in the world--if it were 1989.
Indirect Veritas VP Don Foster is the latest to split from Mountain View. Apparently, 60% of the business ran through his group, but Mr. Bloom hated him. You gotta believe the channel and OEMs will be watching for fear that Veritas goes all direct sooner or later.
Tivoli Storage Manager--like most other backup stuff--is typically implemented incorrectly. A giant eastern bank runs TSM and was backing up over 70TB per week, but didn't back up the database that figures out what's on all of the tapes. Oops.
Legato is back in the rumor mill. EMC, IBM, CA, Veritas, Microsoft, and HP are the current suitors. It took some time, but CEO David Wright has made Legato profitable again, and profit--combined with their installation base--makes them highly attractive. We hear the instant messenger archival tools they picked up from OTG are selling like hotcakes.
IBM's Tivoli appears to be kicking butt and taking names. The story is good, the products are good and sales are booming. We worry about their ability to provide enough intelligent professional services to keep customers happy.
Don't you figure Sun has to buy Dot Hill because they appear to now account for 99.98787% of the company's revenues?
Speaking of Sun, we hear they killed all the HighGround products and development internally. Another write-down appears to be on the horizon.
Who will be the next hugely funded company to bite the dust: BlueArc or YottaYotta? We say YottaYotta, but BlueArc can't be that far behind. We also hear that if Zambeel doesn't get more money soon, the lights will go off there as well. The only company that seems to be doing well in the Valley is "For Lease."
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.
