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Technology Stocks : Network Appliance -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chaz who wrote (1390)	8/19/1999 5:58:00 PM
From: DownSouth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10934

Good post, Chaz. Don't underestimate the level of effort, skill and time that it would take EMC to engineer a competitive SAN offering. NTAP has had ONTAP for about 5 years and had done considerable tuning, enhancing, standards work, and additional features. Also, as a student of "The Innovators' Dilema" (Christensen) you know how difficult it is for a company like EMC to move down market. Now that I think about it, what we may have here is a classic case of NTAP being the owner of a "disruptive technology": "Disruptive technologies bring to a market a very different value proposition than had been available previously. Generally, disruptive technologies underperform establihsed products in mainstream markets. But they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customers value. Products based on disruptive technologies are typically cheaper, simpler, smaller, and frequently, more convenient to use...In the future 'internet appliances' may become disruptive technologies to suppliers of personal computer hardware and software." Christensen Page xv. I submit that NTAP's appliance, the filer, is a disruptive technology that has enjoyed success in specialized markets (software engineering, hardware engineering, ISPs) and is now threatening the domain of EMC as this disruptive technology's merits are recognized and technological progress (bigger drives, fibre channel, fc switching) makes filers move upscale. (Filers are cheaper, simpler, smaller, and more convenient to use and administer than EMC's Symmetrix. That's a fact.) A fundamental question that needs to be discussed: Is EMC a Gorilla or a King. I contend, again, that EMC is a King of SAN. As you know, the quickest way to dethrone a King is with a disruptive technology. If EMC is a Gorilla, the problem is much more difficult for NTAP. (Please don't ask the EMC thread their opinion. There do not seem to be any Gorilla Gamers over there. At least one believes that a Gorilla is recognized by its size only and only one threadster besides me was willing to make the GG argument.) BTW, this EMC versus NTAP thing is on the verge of becoming a holy war. I was long EMC until last week when DGN was acquired. I got out of EMC because I believe that the acquisition will stall EMC and because my money could do better in JDSU. I hate holy wars. They are emotional, irrational, and bring the worst in all of us.