Sign in / up

back to article Dell buys Force 10 Networks

Dell is buying Ethernet networking supplier Force 10 Networks for an unrevealed sum, getting the networking capability needed to build a complete in-house converged IT stack of servers, storage and networking. Force 10 Networks is a privately owned supplier with nearly $200m in annual revenues and operating on some 60 …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. M. B.
    Pint

    So...

    Dell:Force10 then?

    Wonder how long until we see 40Gb EqualLogic arrays. Surprised it wasn't Brocade, Dell needs FCP switching in their portfolio to support the Compellent storage.

    All I know is new acquisition means a free "lunch and learn" for me, so I hope the Force 10 guys like to party.

    1 0
  2. IGnatius T Foobar
    FAIL

    ugh

    Force 10 gear is awesome. It is the FASTEST out there at just moving packets across the wire. I've used it in cluster networks and in financial services applications where raw bandwidth is of the utmost importance. I hope Dell does not reduce the awesomeness of Force 10 in order to make their gear palatable to the masses.

    0 1
    1. Craig McAllister
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      RE: IGnatius T Foobar

      You must never have used infiniband then?

      1 0
  3. Levente Szileszky

    Well, yeah, Juniper was...

    ... way too expensive despite its nice lineup and Brocade's portfolio was too limited, as I predicted.

    Anyway, it's nice to see they started cleaning up that mess they call networking in their product lines. :)

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      The cleanup will not last long

      You cannot sustain networking business (especially high end) without some eye-watering R&D expenditure. I am not sure that Dell is mentally prepared to continue that kind of investment (and even put more) to keep their acquisition competitive.

      I have a very strong "So long and thanks for all the fish" gut feeling here. Pity, Force10 was making some very good gear.

      2 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Pint

        Not too sure about that...

        Dell has done well with EqualLogic, and seems to be letting other acqusition targets like Ocarina, Compellent and SecureWorks keep up their good work.

        Why would they change MO and kill off the potentially golden eggs F10 could develop?

        1 0
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    IBM Networking

    Is the author not considering IBM's purchase of BNT?

    0 0
  5. Nate Amsden

    dell doesn't need fcp switches

    dell didn't need to buy brocade anymore than HP or HDS or EMC or whomever did. Brocade's fibre channel business becomes pretty risky IMO if someone like Dell IBM or HP bought them since the rest wouldn't want to be relying on their main competitor for that business. Just how IBM and HP have distanced themselves from Cisco since they entered the server market.

    ethernet on the other hand, that is obviously a bigger market. myself I called this last year after IBM bought BNT. I guess the OEM relationship with juniper wasn't going as well as Dell would of liked

    http://www.juniper.net/us/en/company/press-center/press-releases/2009/pr_2009_10_27-08_00.html

    And the other Dell stuff (OEM'd SMC ?? or something) is really poor. I've heard force10 is far from perfect but a good fit for them IMO.

    I don't expect to see 40gig equallogic anytime soon, not as long as equallogic can't span more than 1 shelf at a time.

    It wouldn't surprise me too much if Dell went after a load balancing company like A10 or something next, load balancers are pretty important for this cloud stuff.

    0 0
    1. Levente Szileszky
      Reply Icon

      RE: dell doesn't need...

      "I don't expect to see 40gig equallogic anytime soon, not as long as equallogic can't span more than 1 shelf at a time."

      Internally EQL uses 16-drive RAID groups IIRC and even if we assume a future 64-disks unit it's still not enough... on the other hand that's only 4x 10GbE and two are already there on all PS6x10 units.

      They also support DCB now: http://www.equallogic.com/resourcecenter/assetview.aspx?id=8855

      0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like