If I were Mr. Brocade, I would be quite satisfied with how things are going for my company. (Incidentally, there is no such gentleman, as far as I know.)

Brocade"s technology developments keep competitors on their toes. New ideas translate smoothly into products that reach the market before or simultaneously with those of its competitors. Market focus is extending toward new, potentially rewarding segments.

Did I miss anything? I"ll leave stock and balance-sheet analysis to the financial analysts, but from a storage geek"s point of view, following Brocade has been quite interesting.

The acquisition of Therion Software -- a company that is not on everybody"s contacts list but holds promise in storage management software -- adds to the intrigue. Did you notice that all reporting on this acquisition focuses mostly on the financial terms of the transaction? Well, that"s because Brocade isn"t telling much about the technology side of things.

However, my curiosity about the new technologies and new products emerging from this yearlong relationship with Therion should be satisfied as soon as June 1, the date of the Brocade conference in Santa Clara, Calif.

In a concurrent announcement, Brocade also made public a multitiered relationship with Tacit Networks. You may remember Tacit and its WAFS (wide area file services) solution from this review we published last year.

Why multitiered? Judge for yourself: Brocade will begin immediately to resell and act as OEM for Tacit products; Brocade will make a US$7.5 million investment in related marketing efforts; and -- no less important -- the two companies will enter a joint development agreement.

Both companies expect the WAFS market to become quite large, growing to $1.2 billion -- or possibly to $6 billion, according to some estimates -- during the next four years, but neither company is releasing further details about their cooperation at this time.

I would love to tell you the focus of that joint development agreement, but after participating in a rather crowded teleconference with officers of both companies, the most revealing statement I can report in that area is a dry "no comment." Understandably, neither company wants to give their competitors an edge by disclosing their plans too soon, but it"s quite obvious that future Brocade-Tacit solutions will contrast those created by the Cisco-Actona acquisition.

Technologies from both Actona and Tacit address the thorny problem of how to share files between the head office and remote branches more efficiently, compensating for the latency created by WAN connections and inflexible file-sharing protocols. With the release of its File Engine appliances, based on Actona technology, Cisco stepped into this very desirable market segment. It"s reasonable to speculate that Brocade will eventually follow suit -- and not just as a reseller or OEM of Tacit products.

What new products will come from the acquisition of Therion is less obvious, but we only have to wait a few weeks longer to know, so I"ll refrain from speculating. For now.