McData to whip out its switch blade
McData to whip out its switch blade
Nov 25, 2004: McData and QLogic are to co-develop SAN switch blades as part of an exclusive partnership in the area of server-embedded switches. The switch blade will allow users to extend a McData fabric from the core of the SAN to the rapidly expanding population of blade servers at the edge.
The first embedded blade server switch co-developed by the two companies will incorporate QLogic switch hardware plus firmware that enables interoperability in McData fabrics, and will feature a suite of features including interoperability from core-to-edge, open exchange of management data, zoning, security and partitioning.
Enterprise Storage Group analyst Tony Asaro, said the partnership was a natural extension to what was already occurring in the market.
"A large cross section of Global 2000 corporations, SAN VARs and storage OEMs are already integrating McData directors and QLogic bladed server switches. A seamless interoperable McData core-to-bladed server offering will simplify SAN connectivity for customers, as well as expand market opportunities for McData and QLogic in the hot bladed server market.”
According to IDC, it is estimated that the blade server and blade switch market will reach more than US$4.3 billion by 2006. IBM leads the way in the blade server market at present, closely followed by HP.
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