Brocade's IP strategy stutters in flat first quarter

A recovery in storage area networking product revenues has offset sliding IP networking sales to give Brocade a first quarter 2015 revenue result of US$576m, up two per cent quarter-on-quarter and the same amount year-on-year.

Although flat year-on-year at at US$353m, the SAN segment swelled nine per cent in Q1 2015, reversing a revenue dip in the previous quarter.

The best performance in the segment came from its Gen 5 Fibre Channel switches, while its Director line was down by two per cent and its server revenues fell by 24 per cent year-on-year. Brocade attributes this to a customer preference for “fixed configuration” products in the quarter.

Less pleasing is the IP network business, long a focus of Brocade's growth strategy. That segment fell 13 per cent in the quarter, although at US$133m it was up 11 per cent year-on-year.

The data centre market is where the headwinds have been greatest: after peaking at 59 per cent of Brocade's IP networking sales in Q1 2014, it slid in the last quarter to 53 per cent. Carrier sales in the segment rose from seven per cent to 13 per cent of the segment year-on-year.

The quarter recorded a recovery in Brocade's international business, which had dipped to 39 per cent of total revenues in Q4 2014 before recovering to 42 per cent. ®