- Brocade Communications Systems
-
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. 
Type Public (NASDAQ: BRCD) Industry Networking Hardware and Software Founded 1995 Headquarters San Jose, California, USA Key people Michael Klayko, CEO Products Fibre Channel backbones, switches, and directors; SAN extension and routing; network management applications; FCoE/CEE solutions; IP routing, switching, application traffic management, security, and wireless mobility products Revenue 
$2.2 billion USD (FY10)Employees 5,000 Website www.brocade.com Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD), based in Silicon Valley (California, USA), is a vendor of storage area network (SAN) hardware and software. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells networking products and management applications for local, metro, and wide area networks. As of December 2010[update], it holds the largest market share in SAN switches.[1]
Contents
History
Brocade was founded in August 1995 by Seth Neiman (CEO and VC funding), Paul Bonderson (VP Engineering), and Kumar Malavalli (Standards and Technology). Dave Banks (Systems and ASICs) and Paul Ramsay (Software) came onboard immediately thereafter. Brocade released its first Fibre Channel switch, the SilkWorm, in early 1997 based on the "Stitch" ASIC and their own VxWorks-based firmware (Fabric OS or FOS). SilkWorm eventually came to be a long-lived marketing designation for an entire line of products, with the first product being retro-named the SilkWorm 1000 (SW1000) to distinguish it from subsequent platforms. Bruce Bergman was the CEO during most of this period. Product names were generally puns on various kinds of woven fabric, since a switched Fibre Channel network is also called a "fabric".
In 1998, Gregory Reyes joined the company as CEO. During the next three years of the dot-com boom and bust, Brocade released its "Flannel" ASIC (which supported an FC-AL interface to a FC-SW fabric), added services (such as zoning and support for translating private loop devices into the fabric), and ultimately the next generation of switches based on the "LOOM" ASIC. In 2001, Brocade released the SilkWorm 6400, which was designated "director" similarly[2] to IBM ESCON directors already well-established[3] on mainframe computer market. The term "director" became universally used for more expensive FC switches.[4]
From 2001 to 2003, Brocade released switches based on its third generation ASIC, "BLOOM" (Big LOOM). BLOOM introduced increased throughput of 2 Gbit/s instead of 1 Gbit/s. Brocade integrated BLOOM into its first "pure" director, the SilkWorm 12000, in April 2002. The director offered up to 128 ports in two 64-port pseudo-switches (domains). The 12000 represented several internal architecture and technical changes besides the new ASIC: it had an upgraded control processor architecture (Intel i960 moved to PowerPC 405GP), changed the embedded operating system (FOS v4.0 migrated from Wind River Systems VxWorks to MontaVista Linux), and introduced the backplane architecture (hierarchical PCI buses with replaceable blades attached to a backplane). The Bloom ASIC also introduced a notable capability of frame-level Fibre Channel trunking, which provided high throughput with load balancing across multiple cables. It needed to be implemented in the ASIC hardware to ensure in-order delivery of frames. Also hot firmware upgrade was introduced with FOS v4.1 in October 2003.
At the time, Brocade's main rival, McDATA, held over 90% market share in director segment, owing to strong position first in ESCON market and then in FICON market. The SilkWorm 12000 director gained over one-third of the market share after its release in 2002. Brocade added mainframe customers with FICON and FICON CUP support on the SilkWorm 12000.[5] In 2003, the SilkWorm 12000 was named “Storage Product of the Year” by Computing.[5]
In 2004, the BLOOM II improved on the previous ASIC design by reducing its power consumption and die size, while maintaining 2 Gbit/s technology. It powered Brocade’s second generation director, the SilkWorm 24000. Still a 128 port design, it was the first one that could operate as a single 128-port switch (a single domain). The new director also used approximately two thirds less power than its predecessor. Brocade introduced also its first multiprotocol Fibre Channel router, the SilkWorm 7420. Brocade also acquired Rhapsody Networks (a SAN virtualization startup company). This was also the time frame in which Brocade first entered into the embedded switch market, delivering multiple switches physically integrated into other vendors' hardware, such as storage controllers and blade server chassis.[citation needed]
As of March 2009, Brocade had sold over 10 million SAN switch ports with over 44,000 directors installed, and held 75.5% of the overall SAN switch market (Dell'Oro Group, 1Q09 SAN Report).[citation needed]
In Late 2010 Brocade released the VCS product line. The individual products are identified by the VDX moniker. These are CEE/Data center bridging (DCB) and TRILL based switches allowing for multi-hop Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).[citation needed]
Options backdating
Further information: Gregory ReyesIn 2005, Gregory Reyes resigned as CEO after being indicted for securities fraud relating to backdating stock option grants. After spending about a year investigating these allegations, the Department of Justice (DoJ), through the US Attorney’s Office, the SEC, and the FBI filed criminal and civil charges against Reyes. In roughly the same time frame, the DoJ, SEC, and FBI also began investigating over 100 other companies for similar activities. Greg Reyes and Stephanie Jensen, the former vice president of HR, were charged with 12 counts of fraud.[6] Two counts were dismissed, and on August 7, 2007, Reyes was convicted on the remaining 10 counts.[7] On January 16, 2008, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15 million dollar fine.[8]
Stephanie Jensen, Brocade's former vice president of human resources, was convicted in a separate trial.[9] On March 19, 2008, she was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $1.25 million fine.[10]
The convictions of both Reyes and Jensen were appealed.[11] On August 18, 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned Gregory Reyes' convictions and sent the case back to the lower courts for retrial, where he was again convicted, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $10 million fine.[12] As of August 2011[update] Reyes is incarcerated at the Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California, with an anticipated release date of December 29, 2011.[13] As of August 2011[update], a second appeal remains pending.[14]
Michael Klayko was named CEO in January of 2005, when Reyes left the company. Klayko was previously CEO and President of Rhapsody Networks, and had joined Brocade in January 2003 as a result of the acquisition of Rhapsody by Brocade.[15]
Acquisition of McDATA
Starting in late 2005, Brocade announced 4 Gbit/s switches, embedded switches, and directors based on the "Condor" ASIC. Brocade annonced the SilkWorm 48000, a director with up to 384 ports and introduced NPIV along with other features.[citation needed]
On January 29, 2007, Brocade completed its largest acquisition to date by acquiring McDATA Corporation, one of its leading competitors. The deal was initially valued at $713 million when announced August 8, 2006.[16] Brocade rebranded the new portfolio of products: former McDATA devices were sold under Mxxxx designations. Brocade dropped the SilkWorm (SW) designation from its products' names starting with Brocade 5000 switch.[citation needed]
As of 2005[update], Brocade employees held leadership positions in standards groups, including the T11 Technical Committees (INCITS), the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and the Data Management Task Force (DMTF).[citation needed]
Acquisition of Foundry Networks
On July 21, 2008, Foundry Networks management agreed to allow the company to be acquired by Brocade for approximately $3 billion in cash and stock.[17] On November 7, they agreed to a reduced purchase price of roughly $2.6B in an all-cash transaction when Brocade was unable to come up with a $400MM tranche of financing required to complete the original deal.[18] A meeting was scheduled for December 17, 2008, where Foundry shareholders approved the amended agreement.[19]
The acquisition was completed on December 18, 2008.[20] Brocade added the former Foundry Networks BigIron, FastIron, IronPoint, IronShield, IronView, IronWare, NetIron, SecureIron, ServerIron, and TurboIron families to its products.
History of Brocade ASICs
1st Generation - 1997
- ASIC: Stitch
- Ports per ASIC: 2
- Switches: SilkWorm 1000
2nd Generation - 1999
- ASIC: LOOM
- Speed: 1 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 4
- Directors: SilkWorm 6400
- Switches: SilkWorm 2400, 2800, etc.
3rd Generation - 2001
- ASIC: BLOOM and BLOOM II
- Speed: 2 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 8
- Introduced ISL trunking (4-port groups called quads) and frame filtering
- Directors: SilkWorm 12000, SilkWorm 24000
- Switches: SilkWorm 3200, 3800, 3850, etc.
4th Generation - 2004
- ASIC: Condor
- Speed: 4 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 32
- Introduced enhanced trunking (8-port groups)
- Directors: SilkWorm 48000
- Switches: SilkWorm 4100, 4900, etc.
- Router: 7500, FR4-18i (Director blade)
- ASIC: GoldenEye (scaled-down Condor)
- Speed: 4 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 24
- Switches: SilkWorm 200E
5th Generation - 2008
- ASIC: Condor 2
- Speed: 8 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 40
- Directors: DCX Backbone
- Switch: 5100 (1 ASIC, 40 ports)
- ASIC: GoldenEye 2
- Speed: 8 Gbit/s
- Ports per ASIC: 24
- Switches: 300 (1 ASIC, 24 ports), 5300 (9 ASICS, 80 ports)
Brocade products
Brocade hardware
Brocade hardware products include Fibre Channel switches and directors; Ethernet switches and routers; application delivery controllers (load balancers, etc.); fabric extension switches; embedded switch blades; Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs); and Converged Network Adapters (CNAs). Other hardware solutions from Brocade support common protocols that include iSCSI, FCIP, GigE, FICON, FCoE, CEE, and Layer 2-7 networking protocols.[citation needed]
Brocade name Brocade
switch
typeMcDATA name
before
acquisitionMax. port
speed (Gb/s)Max. ports IBM reseller
type-model
[21]HP reseller
designation
[21]EMC Connectrix
reseller
designation
[21][22]1000 1 - ? ? ? ? ? 2000 7 - ? ? ? ? ? 2800 2, 6 - 1 16 2109-S16 16B DS-16B 3000 18 - ? ? ? ? ? 3014 33 - ? ? ? ? ? 3016 22 - ? ? ? ? ? 3200 16 - 2 8 3534-F08 2/8 DS-8B2 3250 27 - 2 8 2005-H08 2/8V ? 3800 9 - 2 16 2109-F16 2/16 DS-16B2 3800VL 17 - ? ? ? ? ? 3850 26 - 2 16 2005-H16 2/16V DS-16B3 3900 12 - 2 32 2109-F32 2/32 DS-32B2 12000 10 - 2 2 x 64 2109-M12 2/64 ED-12000-B 24000 21 - 4 128 2109-M14 2/128 ED-24000B 48000 42 - 4 384 2109-M48 4/256 ED-48000B 200E 34 - 4 16 2005-B16 4/16 DS-220B 4100 32 - 4 32 2005-B32 4/32 DS-4100B 4900 44 - 4 64 2005-B64 4/64 DS-4900B 5000 58 - 4 32 2005-B5K 4/32B DS-5000B AP-7420 ? - 4 16 2109-A16 ? ? 7500 46 - 4 16 2005-R18 400 MPR ? 7600 app 55.2 - 4 16 ? ? ? DCX 62 - 8 768 2499-384 DC Backbone ED-DCX-B 300 71 - 8 24 2498-24E 8/24 DS-300B 5100 66 - 8 40 2498-B40 8/40 DS-5100B 5300 64 - 8 80 2498-B80 8/80 DS-5300B VA-40FC ? - 8 40 ? ? ? Mi10K - Intrepid 10000 10 256 2027-256 ? ED-10000M M6140 - Intrepid 6140 10 140 2027-140 2/140 ED-140M ? - ED-6064 10 64 2032-064 2/64 ED-64M ? - Sphereon 4300 2 12 2026-E12 ? ? M4400 - Sphereon 4400 4 16 2026-416 ? DS-4400M ? - Sphereon 4500 2 24 2026-224 ? DS-24M2 M4700 - Sphereon 4700 4 32 2026-432 ? DS-4700M ? - Sphereon 3232 2 32 2027-232 ? DS-32M2 ? - ES-3016 1 16 2031-016 ? DS-16M ? - ES-3032 1 32 2031-032 ? DS-32M ? - ES-3216 2 16 2031-216 ? DS-16M2 Dell PowerConnect B-series
Besides selling these switches under their own name, some models are also sold as Dell PowerConnect-B series switches.[23][undue weight?] Dell retains more or less the Brocade's model name. Unlike the own switches with different software images for Ethernet-switches being used as a layer-2 switch or layer-3 router the firmware for the B-series PowerConnect switches is a combined firmware. The switches can also run the layer 4-7 switching firmware from Brocade to use these switches as hardware-based network load balancer
Besides the pure Ethernet-switches (which are originally Foundry swiches as B-ML, B-MX and B-FCX switches,[23] Dell also offers Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Fibre Channel switches:
-
- B-DCX chassis-switches for fibre-channel at 1, 2, 4 and 8 Gbit/s[24]
- M5424 blade for the Dell M1000e blade-chassis offering FCoE capabilities for blade-servers with 16 internal 10 Gbit/s FCoE interfaces and 8 external 8 Gbit/s FC interfaces as well as external 10 Gbit/s ports[25]
- B5300 80 port Fibre Channel switch: 80 port 8 Gbit/s FC switch[26]
- B5100 40 port Fibre Channel switch: 40 port 8 Gbit/s FC switch[27]
- B300 24 port FC switch[28]
- B8000/B8000e: top-of-rack FCoE switch[29]
- Brocade 1020 CNA: FCoE 10 Gigabit Ethernet Converged Network Adapter
- Brocade 815 and 825 Host Bus Adaptor for pure FibreChannel networks
Software
The Brocade product portfolio also includes network management applications.
- SAN Management Software
- Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM)
- Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) (from McDATA)
- Fabric Manager
- Host Connectivity Manager (HCM)
- SAN Health
- SAN Application Modules
- Data Migration Manager (DMM)
- IP Network Management Software
- IronView Network Manager (INM)
Awards and recognition
- 2002
- Brocade Wins Product of the Year from Storage Magazine and Searchstorage.com
- 2003
- Innovative Technology of the Year from ComputerWorld
- Brocade 3800 Finalist in Network Computing "Well Connected" Awards
- Brocade 3900 Chosen as Finalist in Datamation Product of the Year (Storage Category)
- Brocade 12000 Director wins Product of the Year Award at Paris Data Storage Forum
- 2004
- Brocade MultiProtocol Router wins Product of the Year Award at Paris Data Storage Forum
- 2005
- Search Storage Gold Award: Mi10K
- Well-Connected Award: SANavigator
- StorageX Wins Network Magazine Innovation Award
- StorageX Earns "Excellent" Rating from Redmond Most Valuable Product Evaluation
- Brocade Router Wins Best FC Product of the Year
- 2006
- InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award: Mi10K
- Brocade SAN Director Wins Gold for Storage Product of the Year
- InfoStor MVP Award for the Brocade 48000
- Big Bytes SAN Award for Brocade 4900
- 2010
- 2010 Voted Number 1 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area
- 2010 Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For
- 2011
- 2011 Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For
Mergers and acquisitions
- 2003 – Rhapsody Networks
- 2005 – Therion Software Corporation
- 2006 – NuView, Inc. Develops software solutions for enterprise file data management.
- 2007 – Silverback Systems, Inc. Provides network acceleration technologies.
- 2007 – McDATA. Key competitor in the Fibre Channel switch and director market.
- 2008 – Strategic Business Systems. Storage professional services company.
- 2008 – Foundry Networks. Ethernet Switches and Routers Maker.
See also
- Virtual Cluster Switching (VCS)
- Fabric OS
- Fibre Channel
- List of Fibre Channel switches
- Storage Area Network
- Application delivery controller
References
- ^ "Infonetics Research: SAN equipment market to more than double by 2014 - FierceTelecom". fiercetelecom.com. http://www.fiercetelecom.com/press_releases/infonetics-research-san-equipment-market-more-double-2014. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
- ^ By today's standards, SW 6400 was a semi-director, simply a bundle of small switches interconnected with external cables and integrated with a basic management application, Fabric Manager 1.0.
- ^ Cooney, Michael (Jan 8, 1996). "IBM prepping entry-level ESCON connectivity". Network World 13, No. 2: 10. ISSN 0887-7661. http://books.google.com/books?id=ow0EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA10&dq=ESCON%20director%20fibre&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Henry Newman (September 18, 2003). "Fibre Channel Directors: Myths, Realities, and Evaluations". Enterprise Storage Forum. http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/features/article.php/3079491/Fibre-Channel-Directors-Myths-Realities-and-Evaluations.htm. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ a b http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/19890/brocade_silkworm_12000_director_named_storage_product_of_the_year/index.html
- ^ Gollner, Philipp (2007-08-02). "Brocade trial seen as test for backdating cases". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN3125716820070802. Retrieved 2007-08-03.
- ^ Therese Poletti and Elise Ackerman, Ex-Brocade CEO Reyes guilty on all securities fraud counts, San Jose Mercury News
- ^ Pimentel, Benjamin (2008-01-16). "Ex-Brocade CEO sentenced to 21 months". MarketWatch. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ex-brocade-ceo-sentenced-jail-fined/story.aspx?guid={56CF0E9D-DD5C-4FBF-AF1F-D958FC7B5233}. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ Robertson, Jordan (2007-12-05). "Brocade exec guilty in stock option case". AP. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071206/ap_on_hi_te/brocade_stock_options;_ylt=AiXRjDjhksidSpAobudELg5U.3QA. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
- ^ Former Brocade Official Sentenced in Backdating Case, New York Times, March 20, 2008.
- ^ Mintz, Howard (May 8, 2009). "Brocade's Reyes hopes to reverse stock options backdating convictions". San Jose Mercury News. http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12331758. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
- ^ Bailey, Brandon (2010-06-24). "Brocade ex-CEO Reyes sentenced to 18 months in prison, $15M fine". San Jose Mercury News. http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15368224. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
- ^ Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator, query for inmate no. 98008-111, accessed August 16, 2011.
- ^ United States of America v. Gregory Reyes, no. 10-10323 (registration required), Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, PACER search, retrieved August 16, 2011
- ^ Maleval, Jean-Jacques (December 2, 2010). "Exclusive Interview With Brocade CEO Mike Klayko". Storage Newsletter. http://www.storagenewsletter.com/news/business/brocade-ceo-mike-klayko-interview. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ Dawn Kawamoto (August 8, 2006). "Brocade to buy McDATA". CNET news. http://news.cnet.com/Brocade-to-buy-McData/2100-1015_3-6103238.html. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ Brocade Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Foundry Networks
- ^ Brocade And Foundry Networks Announce Signing Of Amendment To Definitive Agreement For Acquisition Of Foundry By Brocade
- ^ Foundry Networks Stockholders Approve Merger With Brocade
- ^ Brocade Completes Acquisition of Foundry Networks
- ^ a b c IBM TotalStorage SAN Switch B16, B32, B5K, B64, H08, H16, M12, M14, M48, and R18 (Router) Release Notes
- ^ EMC VisualSAN Support Matrix
- ^ a b "SAN Switches". Dell web site. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/fibrechannel-switches. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ "Dell PowerConnect B-DCX 4S". Dell web site. http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/powerconnect-b-dcx4s/pd. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ "Brocade M5424 Fibre Channel Blade Switch". Dell web site. http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/brocade-m5424/pd. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ B5300 80 port FC switch, visited 22 July, 2011
- ^ B5100 40 port FC switch, visited 22 July, 2011
- ^ B300 24 port FC switch, visited 21 July, 2011
- ^ B8000 series switches, visited 22 July, 2011
External links
Categories:- Companies listed on NASDAQ
- Companies based in San Jose, California
- Computer storage companies
- Telecommunications companies of the United States
- ASIC: Stitch
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