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2001, September week 3b, news archive
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Hoboken, N.J., September 21, 2001 - In response to the recent World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies, NSI Software, a leading developer of data replication technologies and services, activated its Data Protection Support Center for New York City and Washington, D.C. customers who were affected. Data protection experts are available 24x7 to help customers access their mission-critical data and begin rebuilding their data protection infrastructures so America's businesses can continue to grow and thrive. For assistance, NSI Software's New York City and Washington, D.C. customers can:
  • Contact an NSI Software customer support representative at 800-775-8674
  • Visit NSI Software's online Data Protection Support Center at www.nsisoftware.com to work with a certified data protection consultant
"NSI Software is committed to getting America back on its feet. Our whole organization stands ready to assist our customers, both current and future, with all their data protection and disaster recovery needs," said Don Beeler, CEO of NSI Software. "With the activation of our Data Protection Support Center, we have consultants across the U.S. ready to offer unconditional support to our New York City and Washington, D.C. customers so they and their businesses can persevere through these challenging times."

NSI Software's certified data protection consultants are continuing to work 24x7 with customers affected by the September 11th tragedy, including many large financial institutions that use NSI Software's product to replicate data to off-site locations. NSI Software is focused on supporting customers' data protection efforts, conducting damage assessments and beginning the rebuilding process. ...NSI Software profile

SUNNYVALE, Calif., September 20, 2001 - SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., NASDAQ: SSTI)today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program under which SST may repurchase up to an aggregate of $15 million of its common stock. Under the program beginning immediately, the repurchases may be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices or in negotiated transactions off the market. The repurchases will be funded from available working capital.

"I continue to have confidence in SST and our ability to develop quality product in support of our customers and target markets," said Bing Yeh, president and CEO. "We are comfortable with our ability to effect this repurchase program while maintaining appropriate levels of financial resources for research and development and other operating activities. We believe that this repurchase program is a wise investment and is in the best interest of our shareholders." ...Silicon Storage Technology profile

September 20 - 2001 - A consortium of data storage companies has announced it will be offering free data recovery services to businesses affected by the attacks on September 11th. Companies can request assistance, regardless of brands of hardware or software used, through a single 800 number (1-800-859-8559) or the web at www.recoverNYdata.com. The consortium is comprised of many companies in the storage industry including Overland Data, Exabyte, Qualstar, Quantum Tape and Quantum|ATL. The consortium is offering a range of products and services including loaner hardware and software, hotline support and equipment repair.

The events of September 11th have been etched upon the minds and hearts of people throughout the world. All of the consortium members wish to extend their deepest sympathies to those who lost loved ones, family members or friends at the site of these tragic attacks.

This group of storage vendors has years of experience in recovering lost data from a variety of storage media. Its members are very resourceful at diagnosing and repairing problems and getting companies back up and running. The consortium is very happy to extend their services to any of the companies affected by last week's events. A toll-free phone number has been established and technical support personnel stand ready to provide assistance, loaner equipment and services as needed.

See also:- Data recovery services

Editor's comments:- it's heartwarming to see how many computer companies have reacted to this tragedy and offered money, free equipment and services. If any more companies want to let our readers know what they're doing just email me a release with the details.

Hopkinton, Mass. - September 20, 2001 - EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today announced it has acquired Luminate Software Corporation, a privately held software company based in Redwood City, California, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $50 million. Luminate develops performance monitoring software for storage-intensive applications and operating environments. Luminate is the seventh software acquisition EMC has made in the last 20 months.

In another release today, EMC commented on its fiscal third quarter outlook and its plan to reduce operating expenses. Joe Tucci, EMC's President and CEO, said, "EMC's position as the information storage market leader is extremely strong, but the current economic environment for technology expenditures is worsening globally. It is now clear that further weakening of the economy is causing major cutbacks in many of the industries served by EMC. The business world is simply covered in a blanket of hesitation. At this point in time, it is highly unlikely that EMC will break even in our fiscal third quarter. At our current expense run rate, breaking even would require approximately $1.8 billion in revenue this quarter."

Tucci said, "In response to this continuing economic deterioration, we are taking actions to reduce our overall operating costs. EMC's cost reduction efforts will be sweeping in scope, encompassing our workforce, real estate, certain inventories, and other areas." EMC expects to take a third-quarter charge in an amount still to be determined. EMC's worldwide workforce is expected to total approximately 21,000 by year-end, down from the current employee base of approximately 23,400. "This reduction will be especially difficult, as the employees who will leave are highly qualified, dedicated people," said Tucci. "The information storage industry will continue to be a strong, long-term growth industry, and EMC will continue to lead it. The employees impacted by this reduction will be treated fairly, and when the global economy finally turns around and we are able to resume our growth, we sincerely hope to be able to welcome some of the people who leave back into EMC with open arms."
...EMC profile

Editor's comments:- it's possible that even if we didn't have the negative factors of the recession and war against terrorism operating on the economy today, that EMC would start to lose market share anyway, even in a growing IT market. $2Billion has been invested during the last 24 months into storage start-ups, many of which want to grab a slice of EMC's cake, and those new companies wouldn't be doing their jobs right, if EMC emerged unscathed. Also there are more than 200 established RAID companies, which have been nibbling away at EMC's potential customer base. The effect of any of these companies individually may be small, but if you add them together, the cumulative effect is significant. When the recession ends, EMC will find that its relative market position has worsened. But it will still be one of the top 10 storage companies for years.

September 20, 2001 - Ecrix Corporation is once again attending the Stockage 2001 Forum, at the Paris exhibition grounds, Porte de Versailles (Hall 7.1) from 25 - 27 September this year. The tape manufacturer, whose solutions are equally popular among the Mac user community, had also confirmed it would attend the Apple Expo until it was recently cancelled due to the events in the US. Product Marketing Director Mélissa Price and Bruno Stagnitto, head of Southern European Sales, will be present at Stockage 2001 exclusively to update visitors on the latest Ecrix news, including the recently announced merger with Exabyte, a major player on the mid-range storage market, the latest OEM agreement with Compaq for VXA-1 tape drives and a new VXA automated product announcement. The event also provides Ecrix the opportunity to update press on product developments with Ecrix's next-generation product, the VXA-2.

The family of Ecrix VXA products demonstrated at Stockage 2001 includes:
  • The VXA-1 tape drive with SCSI, IDE and FireWire interfaces The VXA-1 tape drive offers capacities up to 66GB at 6MB/second (2:1 compression). Available with a SCSI interface and more recently an IDE/ATAPI interface, the VXA-1 drive also supports FireWire/IEEE 1394 for Mac and PC platforms.
  • The VXA RakPak The RakPak design combines either 1 or 2 VXA-1 tape drives to streamline rack-mounted server backup and provide a data storage capacity totaling 132 GB.
  • The VXA AutoPak (1x15 cartridge and 2x30 cartridge) The VXA AutoPak is a low-cost fully automated library for workgroups, small to medium enterprise networks and midrange servers. Equipped with two 15-cartridge magazines, the VXA AutoPak 2x30 has a total capacity of up to 1,980 GB at 12MB/s (2:1 compression). It provides a highly cost-effective solution for unattended data backup and restore.
  • The new VXA AutoRak To be announced at the show.
The VXA-1 FireWire tape drive that was scheduled to be showcased at Apple Expo will be exhibited at Stockage 2001. This solution provides the largest capacity, fastest transfer rate and highest reliability on the FireWire storage market. It also lets Apple Macintosh users take advantage of the many benefits of the high performance Ecrix VXA packet technology. ...Ecrix profile

See also:- STORAGE trade shows & events

CARLSBAD, Calif.-Sept. 19, 2001-Dot Hill Systems Corp. today unveiled its new SANnet™ Axis, a family of innovative, self-contained appliances that add affordable intelligence to existing storage and network infrastructures. The result is an accelerated ROI, superior utilization of resources, simplified storage management, greater sharing of storage, IP network access to information, and secure information protection.SANnet Axis is a family of products available in several task-optimized models. These products are very compact, requiring just 1U of rack space once installed. SANnet Axis is designed for use in continuous computing environments, so it includes no moving parts other than redundant cooling fans and a CD-ROM drive for software updates.

As the first Dot Hill product offering that combines comprehensive advanced data center functionality with appliance-level simplicity, the SANnet Axis simplifies complex storage practices with its rich SRM suite, powerful logical volume manager (LVM) and advanced storage routing features. SANnet Axis' capabilities - such as point-in-time images, storage volume copies, real-time mirroring, serverless backup, remote replication and disaster recovery - introduce new information protection and business continuance alternatives to existing storage pools from any storage vendor including EMC, Sun, Compaq, and Hitachi Data Systems.

According to Jim Lambert, Dot Hill's chief executive officer, "SANnet Axis represents a new, expanded business direction for Dot Hill which complements the company's existing line of SANnet storage solutions. The move to develop innovative appliances such as SANnet Axis is a direct response to customers who prefer to leverage, rather than replace, their existing storage infrastructures to support new enterprise applications.''

In development for nearly a year, the SANnet Axis has been at beta sites for the past two months. Dot Hill works directly with beta site customers such as CASPUR, a prominent research consortium in Italy and Interactive Telesis, a voice services provider operating a state-of-the-art hosting facility in San Diego.

Every SANnet Axis provides a rich set of standard features, including SRM, LVM, virtualization, storage-to-IP network routing, point-in-time volume imaging ("snapshots''), a Web-enabled GUI and strong client-server security. All functions are performed directly by SANnet Axis - requiring no special assistance from storage, networks or servers - to preserve application performance. Several advanced SANnet Axis features are available as options. These include disaster recovery, remote replication, real-time mirroring, serverless backup, high availability clustering, volume copies, file services, NAS and more. All SANnet Axis features are factory installed and available for activation and deployment when the user needs them. Plus, SANnet Axis supports a risk-free trial period, so the options may be tested before purchase.
  • A SANnet Axis Remote model consists of a matched pair of units that protect information stored on DAS, NAS and SAN systems using remote replication over IP or fibre channel (FC). System administrators select the local volumes they wish to protect and SANnet Axis Remote automatically protects their stored information by maintaining copies at another location, regardless of distance. SANnet Axis Remote pairs communicate over any existing or new FC or IP links, including LAN, MAN, WAN and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) across the Internet.
  • The SANnet Axis HA model uses an active-active clustered pair of SANnet Axis HA units to enhance NAS and SAN functionality. SANnet Axis HA connects directly to NAS and SAN networks using Ethernet and Fibre Channel links, without disrupting storage, network or server operations. Once installed, users select the desired amounts of NAS and SAN storage they prefer to manage using SANnet Axis HA. The rest of the NAS and SAN storage can remain available for use with its own native features, if desired.
  • The entry-level member of the family, SANnet Axis Basic is a single appliance that consolidates SCSI and Ethernet storage and transforms it into modern enterprise-class networked storage using Gigabit Ethernet. Administrators choose how to present the storage to servers - as SAN-style block volumes (standard), NAS-style file volumes (optional), or a combination of both accessible over IP. SANnet Axis Basic makes an ideal platform for introducing point-in-time imaging, serverless backup and volume copies to DAS environments.
Suggested U.S. retail pricing is as follows: SANnet Axis Remote is $39,995 each, sold in matched pairs; SANnet Axis HA is $29,995 each, sold in redundant pairs; SANnet Axis Basic is $19,995 each, sold separately. The suggested US retail pricing of SANnet Axis advanced options vary by function, ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. ...Dot Hill Systems profile

Seattle, WASH., – Sept. 19, 2001 - YottaYotta announced today it has completed an impressive round of investments totaling $26-million with funds from key international players in storage, networking and software infrastructure. Investors in this round include: "YottaYotta is the leader of next-generation NetStorage and TechnoCap is pleased to invest in such a dynamic company," said Richard Prytula, President of TechnoCap. "Steve Mattioli and YottaYotta's vision, team and market are very exciting."

"YottaYotta is very pleased to complete this financing with such high caliber investors given the current investment climate. We believe this is further confirmation of YottaYotta's disruptive technology and the confluence of storage and networks. YottaYotta's technology enables companies to be fully operational in real time from any location within the enterprise. These funds will further ramp our marketing and development efforts as YottaYotta approaches our upcoming product launch," said Steve Mattioli, President and CEO of YottaYotta. ...YottaYotta profile

Editor's comments:- we have been asked by readers to compile a directory of VC's who have invested in the storage market, because we already have this data scattered around our web site. It's coming, and will be a new index page on the site soon.

Aldermaston, September 19, 2001 — Auspex Systems, Inc. this week released a free 61-page report designed to help enterprises plan their data storage strategies. Available for download at the above link, the second edition of the company's Storage Architecture Guide provides in-depth technical and business benefits discussions of the differences between Direct Attached Storage (DAS), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SAN). The report also covers the latest issues in enterprise data storage. Topics new to this edition include:
  • The current state of NAS and SAN integration
  • Choosing the best storage architecture strategy to prepare for NAS and SAN convergence
  • Balancing business benefits and IT infrastructure benefits in storage strategy
  • The emerging battle between Fibre Channel SANs and Ethernet based SANs
  • Universal Data Sharing in large-scale applications in streaming media, MCAD, ECAD, software development, and oil and gas
  • Restrictions in data sharing scalability that prevent large-scale Universal Data Sharing from being realized
  • The differing data sharing capabilities of EMC's Celerra, Network Appliance's F800 series and the Auspex NS3000
The Guide also includes an informative glossary of terms, 24 color illustrations, several highly detailed comparison charts and technical appendices facilitating a quick understanding of key storage architecture issues affecting availability, performance, manageability and cost. ...Auspex Systems profile

Editor's comment:- Over 14,000 readers saw a truncated html version of the original report which appeared on the STORAGEsearch web site last year by permission of Auspex Systems. We're talking to them about doing something similar with the new version, but it will take a couple of weeks. If you're in a hurry, you can go to the Auspex web site now and sign up to access the full pdf.
Other news on this page

NSI Software Activates Data Protection Support Center for New York City and Washington, D.C. Customers

SST Announces Stock Repurchase Program

Storage Vendors Come Together to Aid New York Disaster Victims

EMC Acquires Luminate Software, and Comments on Third Quarter and Cost Reductions

Ecrix Discusses Its Merger And Compaq Agreement In The Tape Storage Market And Announces New Product At Stockage 2001

Dot Hill Introduces SANnet Axis - Intelligent Storage Appliance

YottaYotta Raises $26-Million

Auspex Releases Free Report on Latest Data Storage Trends

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View from the Hill

Re: Stock Buybacks

A lot of storage companies have announced stock buybacks since the markets reopened this week, following the terrorist attacks on September 11th. So why are they doing it? Particularly at a time when the prospects for the market seem so uncertain.

In a normal market, there are many reasons you might want to do this, all related to signalling that you think your company's share price could go higher in the short term.

These reasons could be:- you want to avoid being a takeover target (and losing your job as the CEO), you want to motivate employees who have stock options and are thinking about jumping ship, or you've already spent all the money you want in other areas, and want to use your surplus cash to reward investors.

In today's markets, which are far from normal, it's unlikely that any of the above are major factors in the recently announced buybacks. I think there's another factor at play:- Patriotism.

Many people in the US (and western allies) today feel that their country and way of life has been attacked. If the stock market and the economy slide into even deeper recession as a result of the war against terrorism, then the terrorists will have won. Announcing that your company has allocated money to buy back your shares is a way of saying "we feel confident in the capitalist system and we won't be pushed over the edge". It's one of the many ways that business leaders can try to get confidence back into the free market system.

At most times in the past, stock buybacks have been a cynical ploy, done for the sake of management self-interest or to benefit a very few stakeholders. I've said as much in the past, and would not hesitate to say so again in the future.

But in today's difficult times, I believe that stock buyback announcements can be good for everyone, and should be applauded. The war to preserve the way of life which we all cherish will not just be won by sailors, pilots and marines. (It goes without saying that they have the most difficult jobs to do, and we all wish them every success and a safe return.) But every little action on the home front which shows you are not defeated, strikes another blow for freedom. Opening the markets last week was the first step. Signalling that the economy will not collapse is the next. It may not be business as usual. But the recession is not the most important thing going on right now, and I think it's about time for this recession to end.
LSI Logic
LSI Logic Corporation is a leading designer and manufacturer of communications and storage semiconductors for applications that access, interconnect and store data, voice and video.
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