Dow Jones Newswires -- May 14, 2001
Dow Jones Newswires
EMC Executive Optimistic About Long-Term Growth
By RIVA RICHMOND
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- Economic downturn or not, long-term technological and economic drivers will
cause the data storage industry to swell and change in the next few years.
James B. Rothnie, chief technology officer at EMC Corp. (EMC), speaking during a Webcast to
outline EMC's vision of the industry's future, predicted the market for storage hardware will grow
by 2005 to more than $100 billion while the market for software and services will grow to $50
billion. The market for storage hardware, software and services totaled about $44 billion in 2000,
he said.
Changes in data and storage technologies will prevent storage hardware from becoming
commodities, Rothnie said.
"We're not near that and not headed toward it," Ritchie said. "We have many years of additional
innovation before us."
Rothnie said customers will want to store computer data in large sophisticated systems and only a
few large vendors such as EMC will have the financial wherewithal to make the systems. The data
storage systems will have to integrate technology products from many different vendors, Rothnie
said.
Technological change, starting with improved and expanded fiber networks to carry rapidly-growing
amounts of data, will result in "free and infinite bandwidth," Rothnie said.
The fiber networks, combined with a far reduced cost of storage, will spur a move to centralized
databases and open systems, or systems that include technology from multiple vendors.
The PC will no longer house large amounts of data because it will be more convenient for
companies to put their data on secure centralized systems, where data can easily be retrieved.
"Customers want a powerful vendor at their side supporting the whole structure," Rothnie said,
noting also that companies will have to work together cooperatively to provide support for their
products.
Rothnie said unlike its competitors EMC will focus on more than just hardware. It will also develop
technology to manage and deliver data.
EMC has been beefing up its software and storage-networking businesses. Those businesses have
higher margins than the server hardware business does and are experiencing more demand despite
the slowdown in corporate information technology spending.
-By Riva Richmond, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5670; riva.richmond@dowjones.com |
