I believe NTAP has a foot in this industry:
IBM sees $7 billion biotech market
By Reuters
September 25, 2001, 10:40 a.m. PT
LONDON--IBM said Tuesday it expects to generate at least $7 billion in sales to life sciences customers in three years' time--more than double current revenues.
The world's largest computer company set up a life sciences division 18 months ago to address the computer needs of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, which need powerful number-crunching machines. The computers help process data in areas like the human genome, which was decoded last year.
IBM has distinguished seven addressable segments within the life sciences industry. The unit's vice president, Caroline Kovac, says she will expand each aggressively.
"For every one of those seven areas, we'll make a $1 billion business or more within three years' time," she said.
"That's more than double what we do now, at least. It's a triple-digit growth area for us, doubling or tripling every year," she added, declining to give details.
The total life sciences market IBM is able to address with its products will be worth $40 billion a year by 2004, she said, quoting research from consultants Frost & Sullivan.
IBM expects to expand with sales of supercomputers and databases but also by integrating complex and diverse computer systems, as well as software.
Supercomputers alone, currently a niche market, constitute a global market worth an estimated $2 billion a year. On top of that come sales of some $6 billion a year in data storage computers.
IBM is the world's leading supercomputer manufacturer, with six of the world's 10 most powerful computers made by Big Blue.
Software to manage these huge databases is needed by researchers to investigate how the 3 billion "pieces" embedded in our chromosomes determine the way we develop, age and fall victim to disease.
IBM not only plans to sell what it has in stock but also create new products specific to the life sciences market.
"We didn't pull this unit together and sell what's on the truck. We're also developing new products," Kovac said.
Jointly with U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Merck Finck, IBM recently created "middleware" that can quickly search for information across a large number of databases.
Another area IBM is exploring is bundling several powerful computers to create one supercomputer.
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