This MSFT and HP announcement should be positive for Brocade.
HP, Microsoft hit the road for storage
(http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981261.html)
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 20, 2003, 9:00 PM PT
Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are teaming up to grab a bigger slice of the storage market.
As the first step in a new storage partnership to be announced on Tuesday, the software giant and hardware giant are planning a 10-city roadshow to tout their joint work in the storage arena. Microsoft and HP also plan joint training of their respective sales forces as well as a combined sales effort to win new business.
By investing more in sales and marketing efforts, the two companies hope to carve out a larger share of the market for network-attached storage (NAS), currently a $1.8 billion global market, according to research firm Gartner Dataquest. Microsoft said that estimates from market researcher IDC show it has a 30 percent share of the NAS market, by units shipped.
Microsoft has been trying to make inroads into the storage market as part of efforts to grow beyond its existing markets. The software maker launched its storage push two years ago with the debut of Windows-powered Network Attached Storage systems, which uses a version of the kernel of the Windows operating system, optimized for file serving and other storage tasks.
Although Dell Computer, IBM and others sell Microsoft-based storage gear, Microsoft chose HP for the partnership because of its broad range of NAS products, said Zane Adam, director of product management and marketing for Microsoft's enterprise storage division.
Adam declined to put a dollar value on the new initiative, but said, "This is over a billion market and growing. We will spend whatever is necessary to make this happen."
The two companies plan to take their message to the following cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington.
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Here is another take that provides detail about the size and growth of the SAN market.
Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft begin storage marketing alliance
(http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0301/21/technology-64892.htm)
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
From the article:"...The two companies compete in network-attached products against Network Appliance Inc., which has 38 percent market share, and EMC Corp., with 31 percent, said IDC in December.
Sales of network attached storage devices are expected to grow 19 percent annually to $4.3 billion by 2006, according to Gartner Inc...."
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Also, in Amsterdam (Jan 21-23, 2003) the ENSA@WORK conference begins. Several keynotes speakers including:
Carly Firona CEO HWP, Greg Reyes CEO Brocade, Bob Muglia (Enterprise Storage Division) Microsoft and many other industry experts. More info at hp.com. |
