in case people forget the product cycle we are in...
1997 Well-Connected Awards: Secondary Storage
Subsystem: Exabyte Mammoth Tape Drive
In the tape technology wars, the battle for sub-technology has raged fiercely this
year. With Digital Linear Tape (DLT), Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Quarter-Inch
Cartridge (QIC) and others all competing to wear the winner's crown, a network
administrator's decision as to which products to use grew increasingly difficult.
Then, from the battle dust emerged the victor: Exabyte Corp.'s Mammoth Tape Drive.
Mammoth has set the standard for absolute state-of-the-art tape technology. With a
native storage capacity of 20 GB and up to 40 GB compressed, along with transfer
rates reaching 3 MB per second and 6 MB per second compressed, Mammoth has earned the
right to work with any server or autoloader that's on your network. Add to those
features the fact that it does all this at a much lower cost than DLT technology, and
Mammoth's Well-Connected winner status is sealed.
Mammoth's high-speed search capabilities of up to 376 MB per second and 20 second
load-to-ready make this drive both fast and versatile for a variety of
applications-ranging from simple backup and restore tasks to complex hierarchical
data migration schemes.
Exabyte has increased the value of its tape drive by reducing the cost of ownership.
It achieved this by reducing the number of parts by 40 percent, which, in turn, has
reduced the number of possible points of failure. Exabyte has also added low-pressure
tape handling, which ensures both the long life of media and greater reliability.
Exabyte Mammoth Tape Drive, $52,000, Exabyte Corp., (800) Exabyte, www.exabyte.com RS
#491
Honorable Mentions: Quantum DLT 7000, $8,000, Quantum Corp., (800) 624-5545,
Exabyte seeks safe perch
Two financial analysts say they are hopeful about the future of Exabyte Corp.
(Nasdaq: EXBT), the worlds largest independent maker of tape storage devices.
Their enthusiasm is based largely on Exabyte's Eagle Nest, a recently unveiled
desktop docking bay for detachable tape or floppy drives. It helps expand the
company's range beyond high-end backup tape drives and libraries for major
enterprises to workgroups using desktop PCs, the analysts say.
``I haven't seen anything like Eagle Nest, which gives unlimited storage for limited
desktop space and helps the office user go back and forth to home,'' says Richard
Baldry, an analyst at Olde Discount Corp. in Detroit.
One factor that held back Exabyte revenue late last year was limited production of
8mm tape recording heads by its German subsidiary, Exabyte Magnetics GmbH, according
to Baldry and Byam K. Stevens Jr., an analyst at H. G. Wellington in New York.
The same issue has plagued the storage industry in recent months, but in Exabyte's
case it clearly hampered several millions of dollars of potential sales, Stevens
says.
In its fourth-quarter 1996 report, the company cited the shortage as one reason
behind a loss of 9 cents per share. Exabyte Chairman Peter Behrendt also cited soft
demand for products, high operating expenses and a bad debt charge.
Exabyte, based in Boulder, Colo., finished the last quarter with revenue of $86
million, down from $97 million in the same period in 1995. For 1996, revenue was $363
million, down from $374 million in 1995. Earnings, nonetheless, were positive in 1996
and negative in the previous year.
Inconsistent earnings concern Stevens; he says he recalls when the stock sold for $41
in the early 1990s nearly double its highest value in the past year. |
