Greg Schulz, an analyst at research firm StorageIO in Stillwater, Minn., said Brocade's move to expand its offerings is not surprising, given its problems and the state of the industry.

"I'm not surprised in the least that Brocade is looking to shift their business," he said. "They cannot survive in the current and future market being 99 percent hardware."

But Brocade's survival prospects are good, Schulz added, although "there are storm clouds." "They have the name, the installed base, [the resellers] and hopefully enough cash to get things cleaned up and headed in the right direction," he said.