Tag Archive for Brocade

| August 8, 2019
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Symantec Sold

Updated 01/08/2020 – Broadcom is selling off parts Symantec less than 2 months after closing the deal. Reports have consulting giant Accenture buying Symantec’s Cyber Security Services unit for an undisclosed amount.

Under the deal, Accenture will take over Symantec’s global network of six security operations centers located in the U.S., the U.K., India, Australia, Singapore, and Japan. The SOC’s provide threat monitoring, analysis, and incident response services. Accenture says it will use the Symantec business unit to boost its managed security services.

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Updated 09/17/2019 – As predicted below, Symantec has started slashing jobs. According to reports, up to 230 Symantec employees will be terminated on October 15, 2019.

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Symantec SoldI could have saved a bunch of people a bunch of money– IF you had read this post – you would already have a doubt about this deal – before professional prognosticators Forester said the same thing on August 9th. In their report analyzing the deal, the market researcher cited Intel’s 2010 acquisition of McAfee and subsequent $3 billion loss spinning the security company to private equity in 2016. They said the deal should serve as a warning to CISO’s about the future of Symantec’s product portfolio under Broadcom. Well NO DUH

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Broadcom (AVGO) has acquired Symantec‘s (SYMC) enterprise security business for $10.7 billion in cash. The two firms consummated their hot-and-cold bromance M&A discussions in writing today (08/08/2018).

Symantec logoThe deal is expected to bring in over $2 billion in annual revenue for the San Jose, CA-base firm. Broadcom intends to fund the transaction with proceeds from new committed debt financing. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 of Broadcom’s fiscal year 2020.

Broadcom, historically a semiconductor business has been on an M&A tear in the past few years, buying its way into a broader market position. First, with the 2016 – $5.9 billion purchase of network equipment vendor Brocade. Next was the 2018 – $18.9 billion acquisition of CA Technologies. Followed by today’s $10.7 billion pick-up of Symantec. In the presser Broadcom CEO Hock Tan called the Symantec purchase, “... the next logical step in our strategy … expanding our footprint of mission-critical infrastructure software within our core Global 2000 customer base.”

Broadcom logoRumors of the purchase first appeared in the press on July 03, 2019, with “advanced talks” happening on July 15th for purchase all of Symantec for $22 Billion, but by July 15, Symantec had reportedly walked away from the table. Reports (which appear to be true) at the time were that Broadcom was after just the enterprise-cybersecurity software business; leaving the consumer the business as an independent company or a spin-off to somebody else.

ChannelE2E says the potential deal makes sense on paper. Broadcom is known for acquiring struggling or slow-growth enterprise technology businesses, stripping out costs and boosting profitability. They explain that Broadcom’s secret to M&A success is clearly communicating staff reduction plans to acquired businesses, investors, and associated end customers. Broadcom is known for swift M&A staff cuts that include reasonable severance packages for employees — rather than long, drawn-out, torturous headcount reductions.

ChannelE2E also correctly predicted the Symantec team could face job cuts, layoffs, or potential business spin-offs as a result of the deal. Right on queue, Symantec announced layoffs of roughly 7% of its more than 11,000 employees during FY 2020. The company also plans to downsize, vacate or close certain facilities and data centers in connection with the restructuring plan.

The Symantec name will be sold to Broadcom as part of the transaction. Interim Symantec CEO Rick Hill said the remaining consumer business contributed 90% of the company’s total operating income, and the company expects to be able to continue to grow revenue for its Norton LifeLock business in the mid-single digits going forward. CEO Hill tried to spin the sale as a win in a presser.

This is a transformative transaction that should maximize immediate value to our shareholders while maintaining ownership in a pure play consumer cyber safety business with predictability, growth and strong consistent profitability.

Symantec SoldSymantec’s struggles in recent years which may have lead to the buy-out are chronicled by Channele2e. Former CEO Greg Clark resigned in May 2019 amid weak enterprise cybersecurity software revenues. Executive team departures over the past year have also included Symantec’s CFO, chief operating officer, chief marketing officer and the head of its go-to-market teams. Board member Rick Hill has been interim president and CEO of the company since that time.

Symantec was late to cloud-and mobile-centric cybersecurity services, and faced intense competition from next-generation endpoint protection providers, including:

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Deja Vu All Over Again

Deja Vu All Over Again

The sense of deja-vu all over again you are experiencing is real. Intel and McAfee tried this nearly a decade ago. Intel purchased top Symantec competitor McAfee for $7.7 billion. The expected “synergies” (WTF that means) never materialized. Intel ended up spinning off McAfee to private equity firm TPG in a 2016 sale that valued the business at $4.2 billion.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| February 2, 2017
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Who Owns Ruckus Today?

Updated December 05, 2017 – As predicated below, cable box maker, ARRIS International completed its acquisition of Ruckus Wireless from Broadcom in December 2017. According to reports, “Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company,” will operate as a dedicated business under the ARRIS Enterprise Networks business segment.

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Who Owns Ruckus Today?Ruckus Wireless was founded in 2004 and supplied Wi-Fi services and equipment to enterprises and service providers. At its peak, it had annual revenues of almost $400 million and more than 1,000 employees. Ruckus was the first firm to roll out enterprise 802.11ac Wave 2 AP. The company’s products powered high-profile public Wi-Fi installations, such as New York City’s LinkNYC.

Ruckus WirelessIn April 2016, San Jose, CA-based Brocade purchased Ruckus Wireless in a deal worth about $1.5 billion. Brocade is most famous for data center SAN switches and a player on the NFV and SDN scene. Brocade planned to add Ruckus’s Wi-Fi products to its enterprise networking business.

At the time of the purchase, Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney said, “The acquisition will strengthen Brocade’s ability to pursue emerging market opportunities around 5G mobile services, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, OpenG technology for in-building wireless, and LTE/Wi-Fi convergence.”

Brocade Networks logoRuckus changed hands. Irvine, CA-based chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO), which supplies to phone vendors purchased Brocade for $5.9 billion. But the chipmaker said it plans to divest the Brocade IP networking business that consists of wireless networking, data center switching, and software networking offerings.

Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney wrote on the company’s website. “In terms of our IP Networking business, due to competitive overlap with some of Broadcom’s most important customers, Broadcom will seek a buyer for the business.” The Ruckus product line competes with industry titans like Cisco and Apple.

BroadcomBroadcom logo CEO Hock Tan said in a press release, “… we will find a great home for Brocade’s valuable IP networking business that will best position that business for its next phase of growth.” It seems Broadcom has found a firm willing to take Ruckus off their hands.

FierceCable is reporting that cable set-top box manufacturer Arris (ARRS) is in talks with Broadcom to pay around $1 billion for Brocade’s wireless network edge business – i.e Ruckus Wireless. The article says Arris CFO David Potts told investors that the vendor might transition into serving the wireless needs of its customers. Arris client, Comcast is developing a wireless service based on its MVNO relationship with Verizon.

Arris logoReports are that Arris does not want to buy other parts of the business being divested by Brocade. Brocade is reportedly looking for a buyer for the rest of its IP portfolio, which includes data centers, switching, and software.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| April 16, 2015
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Wi-Fi Charges Up Ethernet

Wi-Fi Charges Up EthernetInformation Technology prognosticators Gartner (IT) predicts that 40% of enterprises will use Wi-Fi as the default connection for mobile and non-mobile devices by 2018 according to Fred Donovan at FierceMobileIT. The prediction says that typically fixed location devices like; desktops, desk phones, projectors, and conference rooms will use Wi-Fi as their primary connection replacing Ethernet.

Wi-FI logoGartner says Wi-Fi is facilitating BYOD. The enterprise Wi-Fi network now allows workers to choose any device and move anywhere in the workplace. Gartner argues that the introduction of security measures like 802.1X augmented with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption has lessened IT’s worry about security breaches involving the Wi-Fi infrastructure. Ken Dulaney, V.P. and distinguished analyst at Gartner said;

Ethernet cabling has been the mainstay of business workspace connectivity since the beginning of networking. However, as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other consumer devices have multiplied, the consumer space has largely converted to a wireless-first world

Facilitating BYOD

As the first connection to the enterprise infrastructure, Wi-Fi brings workers the ability to choose any device and move anywhere without worry. VP Dulaney continued;

WI-FI certifiedAs bring your own device (BYOD) has increased in many organizations, the collision of the business and consumer worlds has changed workers’ demands

Furthermore, cabling systems or even peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless solutions using technologies that offer cable replacement have had to deal with a variety of connectors challenges, such as USB and micro-USB, as video systems move beyond Video Graphics Array (VGA). The market research firm also argues that MACD costs will decrease.

MACD costsAdditions, moves, and changes are costly inconveniences that waste time for enterprise IT organizations. A move can sometimes involve cabling changes that can cost as much as $1,000 … With Wi-Fi printers, desktops, and other devices, all that is required is a cable to the power source, leaving workers free to move themselves making reconfigurations of offices easier.

Because of the many benefits of Wi-FI, Gartner VP Dulaney predicts firms are going to change how they connect;

we expect many organizations to shift to a wireless-by-default and a wired-by-exception model.

New Ethernet specifications

In order to deal with the new wireless-by-default reality, changes are needed on the wired network.  at FierceCIO reports that the vendor community is working to address the Wi-Fi first world. Unfortunately, there are two industry groups pushing their own new Ethernet specifications. Mr. Mah says that new Ethernet standards are needed to work with Wave 2 of 802.11ac wireless access points (AP) with a theoretical maximum throughput of up to 3.5Gbps.

NCaptain Ethernetew standards are needed because the existing Gigabit Ethernet is a bottleneck and current alternatives are not attractive. First, link-aggregating two Gigabit Ethernet connections for each Wi-Fi AP would need additional cabling and more expensive managed switches to support it. Using 10GbE would be overkill. Upgrading to 10GbE is a significant investment that includes new Category 6a or Category 7 cables, more power, and more cabling.

One faction, the MGBase-T Alliance, was formed in June 2014 and includes; Avaya, Aruba Networks (ARUN), and Brocade (BRCD) as well as component vendors Broadcom (BRCM) and Freescale Semiconductor. The other group known as the NBase-T Alliance was formed in October 2014. This faction consists of Cisco (CSCO), Intel, Xilinx (XLNX), Freescale, and Aquantia, a company that’s already making 2.5G/5G components.

Little agreement on standards

At the moment, the only agreement between the two factions is that 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps speeds are needed. The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee has set up the P802.3bz 2.5/5GBase-T Task Force to address this issue. The 2015 Q1 CommScope Standards Advisor reports that the 802.3bz Ethernet cablescommittee has decided so far that:

  • 2.5 GBase-T option will run on Cat 5e (Class D) 4 pair UTP up to 100M, and
  • 5 GBase-T option will run on Cat 6 (Class E) 4 pair UTP up to 100M.
  • There is no release date yet

The concern, however, is that vendors could jump the gun by shipping pre-standard products ahead of standards rectification, complicating matters and slowing down the development of the pertinent standards.

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Remember 802.11n? Pre-standard products? Given that there is no guarantee that systems built with components from the two groups will work together. Don’t jump the gun – waiting for the standard to solidify before buying into new 2.5G/5G Ethernet networking hardware.

For now, Dell’Oro Group analyst Alan Weckel told FierceCIO is that enterprises will probably be able to buy 2.5G/5G equipment starting in Q2 of 2015. 

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| March 27, 2012
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186Gbps Transfer Sets Real-World Speed Record

186Gbps Transfer Sets a Real-World Fiber Speed RecordResearchers have set a new world record for data transfer. The new record was set at the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle, Washington. PhysOrg.com reports the international team set the speed record when they transferred 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data across 134 miles of an optical network for 11 hours.

Commercially available circuits

SuperComputing 2011The record-setting connection used a commercially available 100 Gbps circuit. The circuit was set up by Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) and BCNET, a non-profit, shared IT services organization. PhysOrg says the team was able to reach transfer rates of 98 Gbps between the University of Victoria Computing Center in Victoria, BC, and the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. With a simultaneous data rate of 88 Gbps in the opposite direction, the team reached a sustained two-way data rate of 186 Gbps between two data centers. This broke the team’s previous peak-rate record of 119 Gbps set in 2009.

California Institute of Technology (Caltech) led the team of high-energy physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers from the University of Victoria, the University of Michigan, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), and other partners.

transport large quantities of data across global networks of optical fibersAccording to PhysOrg, the achievement will help set up new ways to transport increasingly large quantities of data. More and more data traverse continents and oceans via global networks of optical fibers. The next generation of network technology needs new methods to transfer rates of 40 and 100 Gbps—that will be built in the next couple of years.

“Our group and its partners are showing how massive amounts of data will be handled and transported in the future,” Harvey Newman, professor of physics and head of the high-energy physics (HEP) team told PhysOrg. “Having these tools in our hands allows us to engage in realizable visions others do not have.”

“The 100 Gbps demonstration at SC11 is pushing the limits of network technology by showing that it is possible to transfer petascale particle physics data in a matter of hours to anywhere around the world,” adds Randall Sobie, a research scientist at the Institute of Particle Physics in Canada and team member told PhysOrg.

The speed record equipment was not sexy

memorex guyExtremeTech points out that the achievement is quite significant. It is significant because the scientists used a commercially available 100 Gbps link and not “over private networks under laboratory/testbed conditions.” The equipment was not particularly sexy either. ExtremeTech lists Dell (DELL) servers with Intel (INTC) Sandy Bridge-based server motherboards with PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 solid-state drives. They used 10 and 40 Gbps LAN connections, and Force10 Z9000 and Brocade (BRCD) MLXe-4 switch-routers. The gear was able to achieve a disk to disk transfer rate of 60 Gbps, around 7.5 gigabytes per second. The 186 Gbps record was a memory-to-memory transfer between the servers. The max per-computer speed was 35 Gbps. Tested.com calculates that 4.42 petabytes traveled across the network during the transfer test.

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So why does anyone need to move two million gigabytes per day? This is fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks—each with a complete movie and all the extras—in a day.

CERN needs faster transfer rates. CERN needs to move the huge amounts of data coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC has already generated more than 100 petabytes of data. The data is processed, distributed, and analyzed at 300 computing and storage facilities at laboratories and universities around the world. Scientists believe the data volume will rise a thousand-fold as physicists crank up the collision rates and energies at the LHC in their attempt to cause the end of the world (Not)

FierceTelecom predicts that service providers will deploy 100Gig when the price of 100Gig is double the price of 40Gig. They believe that will take place in 2013.

This massive amount of bandwidth running on commodity Internet pipes with available hardware seems to spit in the eye of current bandwidth providers who can’t seem to provide a 10 Mbps circuit reliably.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 15, 2009
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Brocade Selling Itself

Brocade Selling ItselfChannelInsider citing the Wall Street Journal is reporting that network equipment maker Brocade Communications Systems Inc. put itself up for sale on 10-05-09. The paper, citing people familiar with the matter, said Oracle and Hewlett-Packard were potential bidders for the company, but a deal was not imminent and Brocade may not even go ahead with a sale. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told investors at Oracle’s annual shareholder conference Wednesday. “We have no interest in buying Brocade,” in response to a question from an investor according to Fortune.

Data centerTo compete with much bigger rival Cisco Systems Inc, the company has been bolstering sales partnerships with large technology vendors such as IBM and Dell to expand their customer reach. In an interview with Reuters last month, Brocade Chief Executive Michael Klayko had said he did not see a need for Brocade to merge with or acquire another company, citing the company’s expertise and partnerships.

However, Goldman Sachs analyst Min Park told Fortune, interest in Brocade is picking up, “Brocade is a likely strategic fit for a number of potential acquirers.” He includes Hewlett Packard, Juniper, Dell, IBM, and Oracle among those interested in Brocade.

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It is unlikely that Dell will purchase Brocade since Dell has Perot Systems to digest and a sales partnership with Brocade. Juniper is not in the financial position but is the most need of the product. IBM is financially capable but the hardware business seems to be losing focus at Big Blue. That leaves HP  for three reasons, first, it is financially capable, second, it is looking to grow its ProCurve business and its EDS acquisition is well underway. The wild card could be Huawei if they can get government approval. Of course, Brocade CEO Mike Klayko just may have needed some extra pocket money as the Wall Street Journal article triggering a 14 percent jump in the company’s shares. Mr. Klayko’s $5 million in options increased by $700,000 in one day.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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