On 3/13/98- Veeco announced significant sale of etch equipment to Storage Tech. Today Storage Tech, made the following announcement- they are entering a new area.
Friday March 20, 2:04 pm Eastern Time
Storagetek to unveil storage device for Windows NT
systems
By Kourosh Karimkhany
LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Reuters) - Storage Technology Corp. on Monday will unveil a new
line of high-end computer storage devices aimed specifically at customers of Windows NT computer
systems, a potentially huge new market for the company.
Storage Technology will introduce the OPENstorage product line, which includes devices that can
allow high-end personal computers and networks to store more than 1 terabyte of information. That
is about the equivalent of all the text in a 50,000-volume library.
Such storage devices have been available for years, but only for mainframe computers and vast Unix
computer networks. OPENstorage devices will be targeted at companies that want to set up big
computer networks based on Microsoft Corp.'s [Nasdaq:MSFT - news] fast-growing Windows
NT standard.
''I think it's going to be a big product for them,'' said John McArthur, director of storage systems
research at market researcher International Data Corp.
He estimated total sales of multi-user Windows NT storage devices from all vendors will be $4.8
billion in 1998, and the market will grow at least 33 percent each year until 2001.
In recent years, though, companies have built huge computer systems using networks of cheap PCs
and Windows NT software, replacing much of the work of mainframes. The explosive popularity of
Windows NT systems has created a big opportunity for Storagetek, the company said.
''We wouldn't be doing this unless it had high potential,'' said Dennis Cindrich, director of worldwide
sales support. ''It's a growth market for us. We think it will contribute significantly to our revenue
growth.''
Cindrich declined, however, to specify how much the new product will contribute.
In 1997, Storagetek, based in Louisville, Colo., had sales of $2.14 billion, almost all coming from
sales of mainframe products.
Storagetek is not the only company chasing the high-end storage market. Compaq Computer Corp.
[NYSE:CPQ - news] and Hewlett-Packard Co. [NYSE:HWP - news] also make devices designed
specifically to get Windows NT business.
But Cindrich said he was confident Storagetek would compete effectively, because its rivals' storage
offerings are designed to be tied closely to their corresponding computer lines. Customers could not
mix and match hardware and storage as easily as they could with OPENstorage, he said.
OPENstorage will be available starting in April, the company said. Prices start at $85,000 for a base
model that has 90 gigabytes of disk space and 360 gigabytes of tape storage for archives.
Storagetek will concentrate its sales efforts on value-added resellers and distributors -- companies
that design and install customized computer systems for other companies. >>>>
veco is selling equipment to tape backup manufacturers. Is this a new segment for veco? Anyone know?
GO VEECO- |
