Pierre,
Here is something I found interesting, in case you haven't seen it
yet.
COURTSEY -IPO MAVEN.
Business Environment
The demand of Open Systems data storage is fueled by the rapid proliferation of new data-intensive applications, such as video, the Internet, intranets, multimedia, data warehousing and data mining, as well as the migration of mission-critical applications of mainframe computers. The high end of the Open Systems market is characterized by large capacity UNIX and Windows NT servers operating in multi-platform environments, generally running mission-critical applications. International Data Corporation (IDC), an independent market research firm, estimates that the worldwide market for the Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks (RAID) storage systems in UNIX environments will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 19.3%, increasing from $6.3 billion in 1996 to $12.9 billion in 2000. In addition, IDC estimates that the worldwide market for RAID storage systems in Windows NT environments, will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 34.1%, increasing from $1.3 billion in 1996 to $4.3 billion in 2000.
Company Strategy
The Company manufactures high-performance data storage systems for the Open Systems computing environment.
Product/Services Portfolio
The Company's principal disk storage products include the Mod Bos 5000T, the RAID Box 5300 TurboT product line and the recently introduced Fibre Boxr. The Mod Box 5000T is a modular, scalable, hot-swappable, small computer systems interface (SCSI) and Ultra SCSI capable Disk Array system, which can be configured with a wide range of storage devices. The Mod Box 5000T architecture supports both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" device from factors, enabling the Company to support the highest capacity drives, and is compatible with both UNIX and Windows NT platforms. The Company recently introduced the Fibre Boxr, one of the first storage systems based on Fibre Channel technology. The Fibre Boxr enables data transfer rates of up to 200 MB per second, transmission distances of up to 10 kilometers, connectivity of up to 126 host/device connections and capacities up to 1.2 TB. The Company is in the final stages of developing what it believes will be the first Fibre Channel RAID storage system activating RAID functionality directly on the disk drives. The Company's X/Oraid ModuleT will provide certain RAID capabilities by activating RAID functionality embedded in each Fibre Channel disk drive. |
