Perfect Time to Be Looking for Brocade® 8 Gbps SAN Equipment

It’s the perfect time to be looking for Brocade^® 8-Gbps SAN equipment – especially Brocade^® DCX directors and 5100 & 5300 edge switches. 

From a product stand point we currently find ourselves past the mid-point of the DCX life cycle which began five years ago with the introduction of DCX in January 2008. The then new director was designed to run at 8-Gbps with backward compatibility to 4-Gbps. With DCX aging, last year Brocade^® introduced the even newer DCX 8510 Backbone as its 16-Gbps Gen 5 Fiber Channel director, but piggy-backed off of its own DCX brand by keeping the “DCX” in the name of the new director.  With many customers looking to upgrade their infrastructure to 16-Gbps early new DCX 8510 backbone directors are displacing many now older 8-Gbps DCX boxes increasing the supply of DCX boxes on the market and driving down the price.

Of course, we’re not sure at this point why anyone would upgrade from a DCX to a DCX 8510 since storage manufacturers are still not yet delivering 16-Gbps storage. But the market is clearly moving in the DCX 8510’s direction.

With more DCX directors now available on the market prices for 8-Gbps DCX directors and industry leading Brocade^® 5100 and Brocade^® 5300 switches have drifted down significantly.

There is another reason to buy used 8-Gbps technology today. If you project out a three year horizon – buying today will not only get you a great buy on Brocade^® DCX with 8-Gbps blades, in three years when you are back in the market for 16-Gbps technology you will be just in time to buy 16-Gbps technology as the price drops – right after the expiration of initial warranty period for DCX 8510 backbone directors.

So if you’re looking for 8-Gbps SAN technology the time is now right for 8-Gbps Brocade^® DCX directors, Brocade^® 5300 and Brocade^® 5100 switches, contact TeamKCI today.