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Technology Stocks : George Gilder - Forbes ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: barry fowler who wrote (2495)	1/11/2000 9:15:00 PM
From: gilderite	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5853

NOVL is the de-facto winner and front-runner of Storage Directories. MSFT has been trying to bump NOVL from it's perch for a few years now, but with little success. There are huge legacy storehouses of data that need to be quickly and efficiently accessed - NOVL has the key to unlock the storehouses. It's not simply the storage of data, but the access to it.

To: barry fowler who wrote (2495)	1/12/2000 11:28:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Respond to of 5853

Hello barry, > I'm wondering what NOVL has on MTIC -- both are into data storage. Novell actually provides "higher layer" services ... file, print, directory, and caching. From a quick look at the MTI web site, it appears that an Intel machine, running Novell's NetWare Operating System, could use the NTI products for storage. Remember, Novell is a software operating systems company ... they develop "transparent" client-server services primarily for the Windows OS clients. > NOVL has a background as a network company, is teamed up with 2 > capital firms and other companies. However, what fault tolerant > storage technology do they use? MTIC has the RAID patents. This is actually an area that Novell has led for a long time. In the mid 80's Novell opened up their disk and LAN support so that they could operate over almost any LAN/WAN technology, and support almost any disk technology. So a server that is running the NetWare Operating System could be running almost any disk channel (they support IDE, SCSI, SSA, Fibre Channel, etc.) and almost any disk technology off of that. But NetWare itself provides minimal RAID support in software ... > However, MTIC is a data storage place. They also lay claim to about > 40+ RAID patents. Interesting read ... as I went through their web site, I liked the marketing in their press releases. It does not appear that they have patents on "RAID" itself ... but merely some specific implementations that they have developed. Still valuable, but nowhere near a "lock" on RAID itself ... > Would NOVL have to pay royalties to use RAID? Nope ... nothing that I can find related to generic RAID 0,1. And since any other RAID support in NetWare would involve a third-party who would provide the RAID capabilities, it still would not be Novell involved in any patent issues ... Scott C. Lemon

To: barry fowler who wrote (2495)	1/13/2000 12:46:00 PM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Respond to of 5853

Hello barry and all, You asked some good questions about MTI ... > I'm wondering what NOVL has on MTIC -- both are into data storage. > > NOVL has a background as a network company, is teamed up with 2 > capital firms and other companies. However, what fault tolerant > storage technology do they use? MTIC has the RAID patents. I knew that I had heard of MTI somewhere ... and now I know ... Ray Nooda is the "founder" and largest single shareholder of Novell (to the best of my knowledge). He has an organization that he set up for investment and VC purposes - The Canopy Group ( canopy.com ) - who has made investments in a variety of companies in the industry. The Canopy Group is the majority shareholder in MTI ... ;-) Visit the Canopy web site and read more ... but due to the relationships, I would be even more convinced that Novell and MTI are going to be friends ... ;-) Scott C. Lemon