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| Dataram Doubles Desktop Dell Memory |
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| PRINCETON, N.J. - October 18, 2002
- Dataram Corporation today announced immediate availability of the
first cost effective one gigabyte memory upgrade for Dell's Optiplex
GX260, Dimension 4400, Dimension 4500 and Dimension 4500s systems. These systems were originally marketed with a maximum memory capacity of 1GB. Dataram's upgrade enables customers to double the maximum memory capacity of their Dell system from 1GB to 2GB. This is a unique product offering not yet available from the system manufacturer or any other memory producer. "With only two memory slots in these 845DDR based systems, our 1GB upgrade will be well received. Memory intensive applications such as database, complex spreadsheets and graphic design are a few examples of the areas that will really benefit from this extra memory," stated Paul Henke, Dataram's Director of Product Marketing. "Dataram's advanced engineering design techniques are showcased with this new memory. Our goal is to offer our customers more reliable cost effective options and to improve upon, or go beyond, what the OEM is able to provide." The DRL1024X11 upgrade consists of a 1GB high density monolithic DDR266 DIMM. These Dell systems have two memory slots. When two of Dataram's DRL1024X11 modules are installed, 2GB of system memory is available. Dataram's memory upgrades can be installed alone, together, or mixed with the original memory. Dataram memory is guaranteed to be 100% compatible with Dell's hardware and is backed by a lifetime warranty and free technical support. ...Dataram profile Western Digital Reports - Revenues Rise 32% LAKE FOREST, Calif. - October 17, 2002 - Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today reported revenues of $582.9 million on shipments of approximately 8.6 million units, and net income of $22.2 million, or $.11 per share, for its first fiscal quarter ended September 27, 2002. Revenues grew 32% and unit volume 59% from the year earlier amounts. "Western Digital is executing very well and we are seeing strong market volumes, coupled with very lean industry inventory levels as we progress into the December quarter," said Matt Massengill, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our ability to effectively manage technology transitions, to respond quickly to changes in market demand, and to meet changing customer roadmap requirements-while keeping delivery commitments-have enabled us to grow the business profitably." ...Western Digital profile EMC Reports Third Quarter Results Hopkinton, Mass. - October 17, 2002 - EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today reported financial results for the third quarter of 2002, reflecting ongoing weakness in customers' spending on information technology, a strengthened balance sheet and continued progress in lowering its cost structure. Revenue for the third quarter was $1.26 billion, an increase of 4% compared with the third quarter of 2001 and a decrease of 9% compared with the second quarter of 2002. Net loss for the third quarter was $51 million or $0.02 per diluted share, excluding a $68 million after-tax benefit associated with international tax matters and a $5 million after-tax benefit associated with a reversal to the third-quarter 2001 restructuring charge. This compares with a second-quarter 2002 net loss of $11 million or $0.01 per diluted share, which also excludes the $12 million after-tax benefit of a reversal to the third-quarter 2001 restructuring charge. Consolidated net income for the third quarter, including the benefit of the aforementioned items, was $21 million or $0.01 per share Joe Tucci, EMC's President and CEO, said, "The IT spending drought got even worse as the third quarter came to a close. Corporations are under-spending their existing budgets, striving to balance expenses in order to offset their own revenue shortfalls. As a result, we are taking further steps to align our costs with the realities of this painful economy. The environment is tough, but one thing has not changed a bit: EMC is the leader in a large and important marketplace, and we are continuing our unrelenting focus on our automated networked storage strategy. The benefits of our R&D investments are being brought to our customers every day. In the third quarter alone, we introduced 12 significant new products and services, as we continue to deliver the most aggressive rollout of new technology in EMC's history." ...EMC profile Editor's comments:- nearly every company is going to report a year on year increase compared to the quarter which included the terrorist attacks of 9/11, so the 4% increase quoted by EMC today is not impressive. Let's take a longer view at this. In my March 2002 article predicting the 10 biggest storage companies in 2004 I said "Although it would have seemed unbelievable back in January 2001, when the first version of this list was compiled, EMC's projected revenue ranking in this top 10 list for 2004, is now close to the bottom." What I didn't say publicly at the time, was that EMC is the company most likely to drop out of this top 10 list in future updates. Unless they can hire someone of the caliber of IBM's turnaround magician Lou Gerstner to take a fresh look at their business, EMC will continue its revenue slide. They still don't understand that their customers have been learning a lot about the open enterprise storage market in the last couple of years. There are hundreds of alternative suppliers. And they sell pretty good storage systems at a lower cost than EMC. If you still own EMC shares my recommendation is to buy a pot of glue and take a look at homestore.com's article - "Hanging Wallpaper" Overland's Results Suffer from the HP Effect SAN DIEGO - October 17, 2002 - Overland Storage, Inc. (Nasdaq: OVRL) today reported revenue and net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2003. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2002, Overland reported revenue of $34.5 million compared to revenue of $40.0 million in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year. The net loss for the first quarter of fiscal year 2003 totaled $557,000, or $0.05 per share, compared to net income of $1,050,000, or $0.10 per diluted share, in the first quarter of the prior fiscal year. As previously announced, results were lower than expected due to continuing transitional issues at the Company's major OEM customer. Conversely, the Company's branded sales channel posted strong results for the quarter and initial royalties were earned from the recent product launch by one of its high-profile VR2 licensees. The Company also reported that it already has a strong backlog of orders for the upcoming product launch by its newest OEM customer. Christopher Calisi, President and CEO of Overland Storage, said: "We believe we are now in the final stretch of the transitional period at our largest OEM customer. Since its merger announcement in May, we have anticipated an approximate six-month transitional phase. We continue to control spending during this transition, while preserving our ability to deliver the higher production volumes we anticipate. This customer has recently notified us that the supply of its predecessor product has already been depleted in certain geographies, which means that it is selling our products sooner than expected. This development and the expected integration of the OEM's sales and marketing organizations indicate that we should begin to see strong demand from this customer in the second half of our fiscal year." ...Overland Storage profile Editor's comments:- it's great having a big customer like an HP or Compaq when their business is growing, but overdependence on a single customer is always a risky situation for any supplier. Consequently in the space of less than a year, Overland has gone from being one of the fastest growing profitable storage companies, to just another company for whom the past looks like the good old days. The company, which has a strong product line, needs to invest more in its own brand to isolate itself more from fluctuations in the performance of its partners. McDATA Aims at Midrange with New 24 port SAN Switch BROOMFIELD, Colo. - October 16, 2002 – McDATA Corporation today announced the availability of the Sphereon™ 4500, a 24-port SAN switch which the company claims is the world's most cost-effective, flexible and feature-rich SAN switch for the mid-range market. The McDATA Sphereon 4500 is available today through all of McDATA's resellers and systems integrators. ...McDATA profile PriMetrica Launches StorageWatch.com Editor:- October 16, 2002 - PriMetrica, a new market research company formed last month, has started a data service which analyses the storage market on StorageWatch.com. The company has conducted hundreds of end user interviews with data storage managers across North America. "One thing that has come through loud and clear is that these folks do not see any downturn in the growth of data storage demand from their internal end users," says Harry Henry author of the report. PriMetrica is inviting readers to visit their site and sign up on the register page for free weekly updates related to the storage surveys and industry market events. ...PriMetrica profile Editor's comments:- when I started our Market research & storage analysts list a few years ago, I thought it would be only be a niche interest. But the 5% of STORAGEsearch readers who visit that directory page is still more than 24,000 readers a year. So it's a significant niche. As the storage market gets bigger there's a growing need for specialist information sources. Nexsan Launches Next-Generation D2D WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. - October 16, 2002 Nexsan Technologies today rolled out its next-generation disk-to-disk backup technology platform, a comprehensive enterprise data protection solution that significantly outpaces traditional tape-based backup alternatives in functionality and value to produce a guaranteed superior TCO for backup storage. The InfiniSAN D2D Professional incorporates event-based, real-time backup to either a local on-site/on-line primary or an off-site/on-line secondary disaster recovery system. Nexsan's Datasweep technology picks up critical files in a given directory automatically and without intervention on regular intervals any time the files change. This event-based model eliminates backup window problems and the exposure to loss of a full business day's data associated with traditional backup applications. Unlike tape-based backups, all backed up files are available on-line, and easily accessible for fast and simple restoration. D2D Professional supports nine different Unix platforms as a server: Linux all versions, SCO Unix Classic, OSR5, UnixWare, Sun Solaris, SunOS, x86, DEC Alpha, HP-UX and AIX. Extensive client support is also provided, including Linux, SCO, Solaris SPARC Solaris Intel, SunOS, SGI Irix, BSDI, FreeBSD, Open BSD, AIX, Dec Alpha, DG-UX, HP-UX, Windows 3.x/95/98/ME, NT, Workstation, XP, Novell 3.11, 3.12, 4.x and Citrix. Nexsan's InfiniSAN D2D Professional is currently available in two configurations: the entry-level D2D Pro-5 that contains one server, five clients, Bare Metal support and 1TB of capacity; and D2D Pro-50, with support for 50 clients of any type, one Unix/Linux/NT server, all relational database agents for Oracle, SQL, Sybase or Informix, Bare Metal support for all clients, unlimited slot support for archiving data off to tape and 1TB of backup capacity. Pricing:- a 2 TB D2D Professional solution, which includes the Nexsan RAID hardware and D2D Professional application, with a 50 client license, Bare metal support and all hot agents is now available, at pricing starting at $23,000. ...Nexsan Technologies profile "It's English, Jim. But not as we know it." - SNIA's StorageSpeak Storage Expo, Birmingham, UK - October 16, 2002 - Providing storage networking vendors and customers alike with a clear path for navigating the complexities of the industry's technologies, the SNIA today unveils member's products in the Shared Storage Model. The SNIA members previewing their products in the SNIA Shared Storage Model are: ADIC, Auspex Systems, Bakbone Software, CNT, EMC, FalconStor, Fujitsu Siemens, Hitachi Data Systems, Inrange Technologies, StorageTek, Veritas and Xyratex. Building and managing complex storage networks involves synthesizing multiple layers of hardware and software technology. The SNIA Shared Storage Model creates a common vocabulary that enables vendors to easily explain how their products fit into the overall architecture. Terms like "SAN" and "NAS" become loaded with artificial and sometimes arbitrary meaning in the absence of a single, simple model for shared storage architectures. The SNIA Technical Council has developed a framework that captures the functional layers and properties of a storage system, regardless of the underlying design, product, or installation. Much like the OSI 7-layer model in conventional networking, the SNIA Shared Storage Model may be used to describe common storage architectures graphically, while exposing what services are provided, where interoperability is required, and the pros and cons of each potential architecture. The model describes architectures, but it is not itself an architecture. You cannot buy it, or a system that it describes by specifying it in a bid, or a request for a bid. You cannot build it. The model does not represent any value judgments between the architectures it describes. Instead, the model makes it possible to compare architectures, and to communicate about them in a common vocabulary. ...SNIA profile See also:- Megabyte's storage glossary Silicon Image Reports 52% Year on Year Growth SUNNYVALE, Calif. - October 15, 2002 - Silicon Image, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIMG) today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2002. Record revenues of $21.4 million were achieved for the third quarter. This is an 11.0 percent increase over the $19.3 million achieved in the second quarter of 2002 and is a 52.2 percent increase over the $14.1 million recorded for the third quarter of 2001. Year-to-date revenues totaled $57.7 million, a 58.2 percent increase over the $36.5 million recorded in the first nine months of 2001. GAAP net loss for the first nine months of 2002 was $32.0 million, or $0.50 per basic and diluted share. This compares to a GAAP net loss of $47.4 million, or $0.85 per basic and diluted share, for the first nine months of 2001. Commenting on the results, David Lee, president and chief executive officer, said, "Silicon Image continues to differentiate itself by executing despite difficult market conditions. Our third quarter revenues represent the fourth straight quarter of both record revenues and double-digit sequential revenue growth. Furthermore, this is the third straight quarter we have seen gross margins improve as a percentage of revenue. Our diversification strategy and digital media expertise continue to help us excel in the high-growth consumer electronics and storage markets. Our backlog visibility remains good with over half of our fourth quarter revenue plan visible in backlog. Given the projected fourth quarter revenue growth, we are on track to achieve quarterly pro-forma profitability in the fourth quarter." ...Silicon Image profile Editor's comments:- analysts have been saying for a while that semiconductor companies will be the advance wave of any recovery in the IT market. But the picture is still mixed. For example Intel Corporation today announced third-quarter revenue of $6.5 billion, up only 3 percent sequentially and flat year-over-year. Intel's results don't suggest an overall IT upturn. On the other hand, niche segments with the storage market have been growing. Snap Appliance is Back as an Independent Company San Jose, Calif. - October 15, 2002 - Snap Appliance, the worldwide volume-leading brand of NAS products, will no longer be just a brand name but an independent company as well. Quantum Corp. that owns the brand, announced today it is selling its NAS products business unit for cash and equity to help launch Snap Appliance, Inc. Along with Quantum's equity investment, significant funding is being provided by Mellon Ventures, Inc., an affiliate of Mellon Financial Corp., and Moore Capital Management. As part of the transaction, which is expected to close at the end of the month, Snap Appliance, Inc. will also inherit the next-generation scalable, unified storage technology of Broadband Storage Inc., a privately held software company. Snap Appliance, Inc. will enjoy immediate worldwide leadership in NAS via the successful Snap Server® and Guardian product families, which will continue to be purchased through their established distributor and reseller channels. To ensure a seamless transition for its valued customers, Snap Appliance will work closely with Quantum and its channel partners. Core NAS technical and support staff from Quantum will migrate to Snap Appliance, further easing the transition. In addition, the two companies will partner to develop and market next-generation simplified storage and data protection solutions. ...Quantum profile , ...Snap Appliance profile Editor's comments:- during the dotcom boom many companies, including Quantum, hoped to make big bucks by spinning off business units as separate companies. That process had started with Snap Appliance when the crash came. It was reabsorbed back into Quantum to share overheads etc. This new spinoff plan is a sign of increasing confidence in the high tech market. Securing Networked Storage - a New Whitepaper from Decru Editor:- October 15, 2002 - a new white paper called "Securing Networked Storage" from Decru, Inc. is published today on STORAGEsearch.com. The article makes the case that networked storage such as SAN and NAS, while increasing the flexibility of IT assets, also greatly increases the vulnerability to abuse when viruses or security configuration errors in firewalls and other schemes fail. Most security schemes operate at the periphery of the storage network and provide little or no protection when an intruder has got past them. The statistics quoted in the article are disturbing. To deal with this threat, Decru secures networked storage by protecting data both in transit and stored on disk. Decru DataFort is an encryption appliance that fits transparently into NAS or SAN environments, securely encrypting and decrypting data at wire-speed. Built specifically to secure data storage, Decru DataFort combines custom, high-performance hardware with comprehensive key management, creating a powerful, yet manageable security solution. DataFort is application-independent, vendor-agnostic and fits seamlessly into the existing network infrastructure. ...Decru profile Bakbone Shows Revenue Growth in Excess of 75% for Q203 October 15, 2002 - BakBone Software announced today preliminary revenue results for the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2002. Final reported results for the quarter are expected to show revenue growth in excess of 75% over the corresponding quarter of last fiscal year. BakBone's final reported results for the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2002 are expected to be released on November 5, 2002. "In an economic environment proving difficult for many companies, BakBone has shown yet another quarter of continued sequential revenue growth," said Keith Rickard, BakBone's President and CEO. "The second quarter showed significant customer wins, increasing average selling prices and continued success in markets throughout the world." ...BakBone Software profile Avamar Technologies Aims to be Top Dog in the D2D Pack Irvine, California - October 15, 2002 - Avamar Technologies, Inc. today announced the availability of its scalable appliance for enterprise backup, restore, and archival - Axion. Axion uses hard-disk storage to deliver online accessibility for all protected data, while its highly efficient software reduces the amount of data stored and moved over networks by up to 99% compared to conventional solutions. The easy-to-install Axion appliance provides policy-based scheduling, organization, and authentication through a network-ready, centralized management application. With its highly efficient Snapup™ technology, Axion eliminates the need for recurring full backups, easing backup-window requirements and reducing bandwidth utilization in congested local or wide area networks. An Axion Snapup is a fast, highly efficient event that captures a point-in-time copy of a system that can be immediately restored as individual files, folders, or entire file systems. Built for scalability and reliability, Axion can be expanded to handle large enterprise environments, while providing local and remote system fault tolerance. "Axion unlocks the latent business value in secondary storage by making data easily and intuitively accessible," said Dr. Kevin C. Daly, Avamar President and CEO. "Secondary storage accounts for 80% of the data in a typical enterprise, but the limitations of tape storage have restricted the ability to access that data. In traditional backup, the resource contention for available drives in a tape library makes it difficult to quickly access data on demand. Axion efficiency makes it cost effective to use hard disk storage, which provides online access to data. And faster access translates into higher productivity for the enterprise." Axion software maximizes storage and network efficiency by finding small, logical sequences in files, objects, and databases and storing each unique logical sequence only a single time across an entire enterprise. Edited files, copied attachments, shared applications, and even daily changing databases only present a small amount of new data to an Axion system. To identify and eliminate redundancy, Axion uses a Content Addressed Storage (CAS) architecture. The storage address for any data element stored in the Axion system is generated by an analysis of the data itself, in a process that ensures the authenticity of the data. This unique 'content address' can be used to refer to repeated data elements to eliminate redundancy, dramatically reducing Axion disk storage requirements. Axion is currently available for major open systems platforms, including Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and 98 (all with open-file support); Solaris 2.6, 7,8; Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2; and Oracle databases using Oracle RMAN. Entry price for a fully mirrored appliance starts at $175,000 ...Avamar Technologies profile, Is Deduplication of Data Safe? - and More Deduplication FAQs | ||||||||||||||||
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