Cisco announced new services for storage area networks (SANs) that would deliver higher performance, scalability, and reliability.  The two new offerings are the Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director and the Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch which are both fairly significant upgrades to its storage networking portfolio.

Joining this morning’s Live NewsDesk Show with Kristin Feledy is Wikibon Senior Analyst Stu Miniman with his Breaking Analysis.

Miniman explains the difference between the two offerings.  The 9710 is a large chassis that has hundreds of ports, 16 gigabit fiber channel which is already available, but there will be a 10 gigabit ethernet version  available later this year.  As for the 9250i, it supports both fiber channel and ethernet and also does FCIP for WAn extension or any other devices as this is a multiple protocol box.

What Cisco wants people to know is it now has a 16 gigabit fiber channel.  But isn’t this effort a bit late in the game?

Brocade is the pioneer in 16 gigabit fiber channel which has already been standardized for two years.  Switches shipped by Brocade are 40 or 60 percent 16 gigabit, which shows how behind Cisco is in the 16 gigabit fiber channel switches.

“Yes, Cisco is a little bit behind in 16 gig, this gets them back in the discussion,” Miniman said.  “Not sure how many customers they necessarily would lose to them because there are games you can play with pricing and configurations to try to win deals if customers are saying, “I can have fewer ports to 16 gig than what i have before in 8 gig.”

But will this announcement cause a shift in the market?  Miniman stated that whenever Cisco announces something that puts them in the position behind competitors, they lose a couple of points.  But with announcment, Miniman believes that Cisco will be able to gain back some of the points it lost to Brocade.

For more of Miniman’s Breaking Analysis, checkout the NewsDesk video below.