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	August 23, 2006 Storage Networking Vendors Go Head-To-Head Brocade Acquires McDATA To Compete Against Networking Giant Cisco by Stephanie Balaouras with Andrew Reichman, Rachel Batiancila

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Executive Summary

This month, Brocade Communications Systems announced its plan to acquire storage networking rival McDATA in a deal valued at $713 million. The acquisition is not surprising given how competitive this market became when Cisco Systems moved into the space several years ago. The increased competition between Brocade, Cisco, and McDATA has driven down the price per port for Fibre Channel networking components dramatically and the rise of IP-based storage is challenging the dominance of Fibre Channel technology in storage networking. With its deep pockets and IP networking expertise, these forces clearly favor Cisco. Brocade still has more work to do to compete with Cisco as a pervasive data center networking vendor, but the acquisition will definitely help maintain its leadership in the existing Fibre Channel market. The acquisition gives Brocade a boost in key areas but enterprises should consider likely product discontinuations due to overlap as they evaluate purchases from either Brocade or McDATA.

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