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

To: DownSouth who wrote (1538)	10/29/1999 2:22:00 PM
From: Winston Chen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10934

My wife and I were in the neighborhood last Wednesday 3pm, so we decided to stop by the new headquarter and attend the shareholders' meeting. The meeting was short, about 30 minutes. I was impressed by two things. 1. Nice head quarter. The new facility looked SHARP, and they were building another facility across the parking lot. 2. Dan W. spoke with GREAT confidence. This is strictly my own impressions of him, but that confidence radiated so strongly off him, it made me feel very good. He talked about going forward netapp will expand its core business look for opportunities in adjacent space(s) improve and strengthen distribution channels executions He made a point about going forward, execution was THE key for netapp.

To: DownSouth who wrote (1538)	10/31/1999 6:15:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Respond to of 10934

Firms flock to growing server appliance market By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 27, 1999, 1:20 p.m. PT news.cnet.com New hardware and software companies are joining the growing "server appliance" movement, creating new categories for the special-purpose computers. A server appliance is a back-end computer that is usually geared for a specific task, such as handling email, housing a database, or storing data. Once the domain of smaller companies such as Cobalt Networks, Encanto Networks, and Meridian Data, more recently the big boys have been arriving--companies that have been selling powerful servers for years such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq Computer. There's a big reason so many companies are interested: money. Merrill Lynch has predicted that server appliance sales will grow from $1.1 billion in 1997 to $16 billion in 2002. And while many of these server appliances are relatively inexpensive, some of the highly specialized versions cost a bundle. For example, Mirapoint's email servers cost as much as $30,000 and Network Appliance's super-high-speed file servers can cost well over $100,000. Now, news from a trade show for Internet service providers is highlighting a new category of server appliance makers: established companies that, unlike traditional server makers, don't have to worry about server appliances undercutting sales of general-purpose servers. Inktomi, a software company that makes money powering search engines and other Internet sites, has made a product out of server software it developed to help speed Internet access. Intel will build the actual hardware for these devices. Traffic Server Engine is Inktomi's "caching" software that helps companies stash information across computer networks, making it easier for a Web surfer in Boston, for example, to retrieve information from a Web site that's in Japan. Inktomi said Intel will build appliances using the software, which runs on top of Sun Microsystems' Solaris operating system. The Inktomi-based servers will compete with a multitude of other caching products. Dell and Compaq sell caching servers using special software from Novell. Network Appliance has its own high-speed caching products. Cobalt and CacheFlow, two server appliance companies that have filed to go public, also offer caching servers. Competitors moving right along But the traditional players aren't standing still. Santa Cruz Operation, a seller of Unix operating system software, has signed a deal with with Micron Electronics, a computer maker, under which SCO appliance server software will be used on Micron's new NetNow service. NetNow is part of Micron's push to make money by renting out Internet real estate to companies that don't want to be bothered with the hassle. In addition, SCO executives said yesterday during a conference call that Micron will use the SCO software in stand-alone products, similar to the way Compaq uses the software in its NeoServer server appliances. Like Inktomi, Cobalt also tried to capture the attention of attendees of the ISPCon show. The company debuted a new server, the RaQ 3i, which is designed to power e-commerce operations on the Internet. The RaQ 3i is a new level of complexity to the appliance market, which typically focuses on handling relatively standard tasks such as serving up Web pages. The appliances will be sold with e-commerce software built in, including Oracle 8i database and packages from Intershop, Mercantec, and others, said Kelly Herrell, vice president of Cobalt. Based on Intel-compatible AMD chips, the RaQ 3i is unlike Cobalt's previous products, which use MIPS chips, Herrell said. Not including the software, the servers will cost between $1,300 and $4,000, the company said. And EMC, a company that sells data storage hardware, could become the latest partner in Oracle's "Raw Iron" initiative to sell appliances with Oracle's popular database software built in. Oracle is backing the server appliance push with its Raw Iron initiative, which has drawn participation from traditional server makers Dell Computer, HP, Siemens, and others. Now, with the tightened ties between Oracle and EMC, there's a possibility that EMC will join that list, said Mike Rosha, Oracle's senior vice president of platform technology, in an interview yesterday. EMC is known for its robust but very expensive data storage systems, but because the company's products aren't servers, the Raw Iron initiative would be a new direction for the company. EMC's storage products currently connect to servers from other companies, such as IBM, Sun, Compaq, or HP. Server appliances sometimes are inexpensive replacements for general-purpose servers, as in the case of Maxtor's MaxAttach file server.

To: DownSouth who wrote (1538)	11/19/1999 11:14:00 AM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Respond to of 10934

hey, DS, think maybe Ruettgers read this month's GTR? <vbg> for what it's worth, here are the latest EMC-DGN machinations. ----- EMC to scrap low-end Data General computers By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com November 19, 1999, 4:20 a.m. PT news.cnet.com LAS VEGAS--EMC, having completed its acquisition of Data General, will eliminate the low end of its Aviion server line in an attempt to make the business unit profitable. In coming months, the company will gradually eliminate its desktop PC and low-end and mid-range servers, said Bob Dutkowsky, who took over Data General's Aviion server line about a month ago. "We'll get rid of...the low end of the product line," Dutkowsky said in an interview. "We can't compete with high-volume desktop" computer sellers, he said. Instead, the company will focus on its high-end Windows NT servers, Dutkowsky said. As previously reported, EMC chief executive Mike Ruettgers said the company will aim the systems at customers looking to consolidate the large numbers of Windows NT servers that have sprouted up across large companies and turned into a major headache for corporate computer administrators. The changes are key to how well EMC can digest the Data General products and quickly turn the server line into a profitable unit. Other changes in the works include a shift away from selling the DG-UX version of the Unix operating system that Data General licenses from Santa Cruz Operation and a retreat from some parts of the global marketplace, Dutkowsky said. These changes will be accomplished with a minimum of fuss for customers, he said. "It will be graceful," with Data General continuing to sell the products through the next year for those who need them and plans to set up alliances to provide an alternative. The server and desktop products being cut from the line accounted for about 15 percent of Data General's revenues. Though 2000 revenues from the Data General server line will be about $750 million, compared to $1 billion for this year, the business unit will be profitable, he said. Some Data General employees will lose jobs, although it's not yet clear how many. EMC is growing fast and is trying to match Data General employees to open positions, Dutkowsky said. EMC acquired Data General in August and is integrating the company's Clariion storage product into the EMC product line. Data General's Aviion server line, however, is being run as an independent unit. Due to the nature of the acquisition, EMC isn't allowed to spin off the Aviion line. Also, Ronald Skates, the former chief executive of Data General, is retiring. The Aviion machines include an architecture called non-uniform memory access, or NUMA, that is technically well regarded but that hasn't proven a magic bullet for those manufacturers selling NUMA systems. NUMA allows many processors to be tied together with a collection of high-speed networking chips. Near each processor is a small piece of the computer's memory system for more efficient processing. NUMA systems also have been developed by Sequent, which IBM acquired in July, and by SGI, which is in financial trouble. Included in the Aviion line are machines using up to 32 processors, far more than were supported by Microsoft's popular Windows NT operating system. Although Microsoft initially wasn't inclined to support NUMA, that has changed, said David Flawn, vice president of Windows NT marketing at Data General. "NUMA used to be a dirty word for Microsoft," he said. But with Windows 2000, the successor to Windows NT, Microsoft changed the way Windows addresses memory to make NUMA feasible, he said. In fact, Data General had hoped to demonstrate a 32-processor system running Windows 2000 at the Comdex show, but various hurdles derailed the plan. The 32-processor machine, which Data General has working in its lab, will likely debut along with the Data Center edition of Windows 2000, expected to ship in six to eight months. In the nearer term, the company will release a thinner, rack-mountable server using one to four processors and measuring only 3.5 inches thick, said Flawn. Data General previewed the product, called the 2400R, at Comdex. For now, though, others who sell Windows NT machines will indirectly help sell Aviion computers, Dutkowsky argued, since Data General ultimately hopes to sell the big systems that consolidate all the little servers that are too numerous to manage. "The more servers Dell sells, the more opportunity is created for us," he said. Data General will take a "high-touch" approach with customers, keeping in close contact and helping to customize and configure servers. The approach differs from other companies that keep costs lower by minimizing such interactions, but it's necessary when selling high-end machines, Dutkowsky said. About half of Data General's revenues come from product sales and half from services such as customizing, installing and supporting those products, he said. Data General doesn't expect to change that proportion, he said.