Brocade Communications Systems

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Brocade, Inc.
Type Public (NASDAQ: BRCD)
Founded 1995
Headquarters San Jose, California, USA
Key people Michael Klayko, CEO
Industry Networking Hardware and Software
Products Fibre Channel switches and directors, FAN solutions, SAN extension and routing, SAN management applications
Revenue ▲$750.6 million USD (2006)
Employees 2,400
Website www.brocade.com

Brocade, Inc. NASDAQ: BRCD, based in Silicon Valley, designs, manufactures, and sells storage networking solutions and management applications for storage area networks (SANs) and file area networks (FANs). For over ten years, Brocade has been a major influence in promoting the growth of SANs through the innovation of fibre channel switches and directors. In 2005, Brocade was swept up in the options backdating scandal and its former CEO has been convicted of 10 counts of securities fraud in connection with backdating of stock options.

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[edit] 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 ultimately came to be a marketing designation for an entire line of switches, directors, and routers, with the first product being renamed the SilkWorm 1000 (SW1000) to distinguish it from subsequent platforms. Bruce Bergman was the CEO during most of this period.

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 switched fabric), added many value-added fabric 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, a semi-director product, made of a bunch of small switches integrated with a new management application, Fabric Manager 1.0.

From 2001 to 2003, Brocade released numerous switches and a director based on its third generation ASIC, "BLOOM" (Big LOOM). BLOOM introduced increased throughput of 2 Gb/s instead of existing 1 Gb/s. Brocade integrated BLOOM into its first director, the SilkWorm 12000, in April 2002. The director offered up to 128 ports in two 64-port domains, and run FOS v4.0 (which switched from VxWorks to Linux kernel). From an internal architecture and technical perspective, the 12000 was significant for Brocade in that it represented a change on five major fronts: it used a new ASIC (BLOOM instead of LOOM), had an upgraded control processor architecture (Intel i960 moved to PowerPC 405GP), changed the embedded operating system (switch from Wind River Systems VxWorks to MontaVista Linux in FOS v4.0), and shifted the system architecture (single motherboard with a single PCI bus to hierarchical PCI buses with hot-swap blades and a backplane). The Bloom ASIC was also the first product in the industry ever to offer hardware-based frame-level Fibre Channel trunking, which provided unmatched throughput through guaranteed even load balancing across multiple "pipes", while maintaining reliable and in-order frame delivery. Also hot firmware upgrade was introduced with FOS v4.1 in October 2003. Accommodation of all these changes mandated enormous modifications to the architecture.

At the time, Brocade's main rival, McDATA, held over 90% market share in director segment. The SilkWorm 12000 director quickly gained over one-third of the market share after its release in 2002. During this initial growth in the director market, Brocade gained the confidence of some customers from the toughest mainframe computer market, by bringing FICON and FICON CUP support to the 12000.

In 2003, the SW12000 was named “Storage Product of the Year” by Computing, a European IT Publication.

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, which supported up to 128 ports in a single domain. The new director also used approximately two thirds less power than its predecessor. In this time frame, Brocade also introduced many additional value-added software features, acquired Rhapsody Networks (a SAN virtualization startup company), and delivered it's first multiprotocol Fibre Channel router, the SilkWorm 7420. 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.

As of October 2005, Brocade had sold over 5.5 million ports and held nearly 50% of the overall market, over 60% of the switch market, and, with over 8000 directors sold, nearly 30% of the director market (Dell'Oro, October 2005).

[edit] Options backdating issues

In 2005, Gregory Reyes stepped down as CEO after being accused of backdating stock option grants. Approximately a year after 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 SEC, DoJ, 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.[1] Two counts were dismissed, and on August 7, 2007 Reyes was convicted on the remaining 10 counts.[2] He was to be sentenced on November 21, 2007 and faces 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.[clarify]

Stephanie Jensen, the former vice president of Human Resources, was convicted in a separate trial. The sentencing is scheduled for March 12, 2008. [3]

After Reyes left the company, Michael Klayko was named CEO in January 2005. Klayko was originally CEO and President of Rhapsody Networks, and had joined Brocade in 2004 as a result of the acquisition of his company.

[edit] Acquisition of McData

Starting in late 2005, Brocade rolled out a full range of 4 Gb/s switches, embedded switches, and directors based on the "Condor" ASIC. Brocade continued its innovation with the new director, the SilkWorm 48000. This director has up to 384 ports and introduces NPIV along with other feature enhancements.

These new products helped fuel the company’s steady revenue growth in 2006.

On January 29, 2007, Brocade completed its largest acquisition to date by acquiring McDATA Corporation, one of its leading competitors in the Fibre Channel switch and director market, and launched a corporate-wide rebranding effort. Former McData devices are still sold by Brocade, under Mxxxx designation. Consequently, Brocade dropped the SilkWorm (SW) designation from its products' names starting with Brocade 5000 switch.

Since its beginning in 1995, Brocade has authored more Fibre Channel standards than any other company and it continues its technical leadership today. As of 2005, Brocade employees hold leadership positions in some of the industry’s biggest standards groups, including the T11 Technical Committees (INCITS), the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), and the Data Management Task Force (DMTF).

[edit] 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 2xxx (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 3xxx (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 4xxx (4100, 4900, etc.)
  • ASIC: GoldenEye (scaled-down Condor)
    • Speed: 4 Gbit/s
    • Ports per ASIC: 16
    • Switches: SilkWorm 200E

5th Generation - 2008

  • ASIC: Condor 2
    • Speed: 8 Gbit/s
    • Ports per ASIC: 40
    • Directors: DCX

[edit] Brocade products

[edit] Brocade hardware

Brocade’s major hardware products include award-winning fibre channel switches and directors. Other hardware solutions from Brocade support common protocols that include iSCSI, FCIP, GigE and FICON.

  • SAN Switches (1, 2, and 4 Gbit/s)
    • Brocade 5000 – Flexible switch with up to 32 ports
    • Brocade 4900 – High-density with up to 64 ports
    • Brocade 4100 – Up to 32 ports
    • Brocade 200E – Entry-level switch with up to 16 ports
    • Brocade M4700 – Flexible switch with up to 32 ports
    • Brocade M4400 – Entry-level switch with up to 16 ports
  • SAN Directors (1, 2, and 4 Gbit/s)
    • Brocade 48000 – up to 384 ports
    • Brocade Mi10K – up to 256 ports
    • Brocade M6140 – up to 140 ports


Brocade name McData name
before
acquisition		 Max. port
speed (Gb/s)		 Max. ports IBM reseller
type-model[4]
3250 - 2 8 2005-H08
3850 - 2 16 2005-H16
3900 - 2 32 2109-F32
12000 - 2 2 x 64 2109-M12
24000 - 4 128 2109-M14
48000 - 4 384 2109-M48
200E - 4 16 2005-B16
4100 - 4 32 2005-B32
4900 - 4 64 2005-B64
5000 - 4 32 2005-B5K
7500 - 4 16 2005-R18
Mi10K Intrepid 10000 10 256 2027-256
M6140 Intrepid 6140 10 140 2027-140
 ? ED-6064 10 64 2032-064
 ? Sphereon 4300 2 12 2026-E12
M4700 Sphereon 4700 4 32 2026-432
 ? Sphereon 4500 2 24 2026-224
M4400 Sphereon 4400 4 16 2026-416
 ? Sphereon 3232 2 32 2027-232
 ? ES-3016 1 16 2031-016
 ? ES-3032 1 32 2031-032
 ? ES-3216 2 16 2031-216

[edit] Brocade software

Brocade’s product portfolio also includes a suite of network and file management applications. Protocols supported by Brocade software includes SMB/CIFS and NFS.

  • SAN Management Software
    • EFCM (from McData)
    • Fabric Manager
    • Web Tools
  • SAN Application Modules
    • Application Resource Manager (ARM)
    • Data Migration Manager (DMM)

[edit] 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

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gollner, Philipp. "Brocade trial seen as test for backdating cases", Reuters, 2007-08-02. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  2. ^ Therese Poletti and Elise Ackerman, Ex-Brocade CEO Reyes guilty on all securities fraud counts, San Jose Mercury News
  3. ^ Robertson, Jordan. "Brocade exec guilty in stock option case", AP, 2007-12-05. Retrieved on 2007-12-05. 
  4. ^ IBM TotalStorage SAN Switch B16, B32, B5K, B64, H08, H16, M12, M14, M48, and R18 (Router) Release Notes

[edit] External links