Some interesting comments from our competitors on the NTAP thread:
New ML Research EMC & NAS
In the Server Hardware Update Report dated March 20, 2000, Steve Milunovich says that a disruptive technology, like NAS, is a risk to EMC. He also says, "We think EMC may be looking to partner for a low-end NAS product in the second half [of this year]." ML has good research.
This is important new information about EMC's NAS strategy if correct. The thinking has been that they would be using Data General's technology for a NAS product sometime this year. If this is correct, it could mean that the threat from EMC would be a repackaged product from an existing competitor with an EMC logo on it. We KNOW how we stand up against existing competitors! The fear has been "What would EMC offer against NTAP?"
-AND-
No, I have not heard anything about EMC's NAS situation. What I find interesting, however, is that about 2 conference calls ago, DW, when asked about EMC's NAS threat responded in words that indicated that he was dubious about the viability of whatever DG had been working on as a NAS product.
One thing for sure, any third party product that EMC badges will be inferior in reliability, performance, and security compared to NTAP. Nothing matches NTAP's WAFL and SNAPSHOT (patented) software technologies. Throw the clustering and NDMP technologies in there and the price/performance of NTAP will beat EMC in any fair competition.
No matter what EMC does, its existing customer base is likely to remain faithful. That's the raised floor psychology.
If this story pans out, this is good for NTAP in the NAS market.
Sounds like some honest competition to our EMC.
Good luck EMC'ers
Eric |
