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

To: Gregory Rasp who wrote (1627)	11/16/1999 7:15:00 PM
From: kas1	Respond to of 10934

> Rather it is the Disk prices. Does anyone > have any input on individual disk pricing? Gregory, Disk pricing is just about the least serious thing in the world to worry about. The disk price wars have recently reached a truce, but these truces are usually broken in a matter of weeks. Thanks again to everyone here, especially DS. We've finally hit the bigtime.

To: Gregory Rasp who wrote (1627)	11/16/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: DownSouth	Respond to of 10934

Akami is NOT a competitor. AKAM is a service provider for caching fixed web objects (like ads, logos, etc.) on AKAM's own network. THis is not caching of content. In fact, NTAP supports AKAM's service. RE: Disk prices. The whole issue there is that disk margins are low, as disks are a commodity. The larger the storage of a filer, the more disk drives are there, thus the downward pressure on margins. NTAP is offsetting this downward pressure with more software features at extra cost. New software features also increases switching costs, raises barriers to entry. A very good thing. Calling the INKT discussion "bashing" may be a bit overstating the conversation. NTAP was explicitly asked about competition from INKT. The response was that INKT is trying to go for the appliance approach and is getting outside the ISP market, thus admitting that NTAP's approach was the right approach. But, they said, NTAP has a 2-3 year headstart.