I misread your post about EMC centralized data vs. NTAP but I copied it and posted to Bill FIschofer, who replied, in part, that he sees no competition. Now I am confused a bit more (it was 105 in KC yesterday). I own some NTAP now but much less than my EMC. I like to worry. What should I worry about? (G)
Here is my stirring the pot re-post:
******To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (11008)
From: Bill Fischofer Tuesday, August 29, 2000 7:09 PM ET
Reply # of 11009
Re: NTAP
I do not view NTAP as competition to EMC for two reasons. First, the storage segment is sufficiently large to support many successful players. This is not a zero-sum game. Second, EMC and NTAP are operating in different areas. As DownSouth notes, EMC currently focuses on the enterprise core and centralized data (re-read the post again--DS is not saying that EMC does not centralize data) while NTAP is operating more towards the edge with their NetCache products.
There is no question that NTAP has been a very successful investment over the past several years and I expect them to continue to be successful. I do believe, however, that competition in their segments is likely to intensify to a greater degree than in EMC's segments over the next 2-3 years, which means that NTAP will have to work that much harder to avoid missteps. I believe Gus has touched on this point here on several occasions and I largely agree with his arguments.
EMC remains completely dominant in the enterprise core which remains one of the fastest growing high-margin segments in IT today. This is why I am quite comfortable holding EMC for the indefinite future. |
