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

To: DownSouth who wrote (2779)	3/23/2000 10:43:00 AM
From: HDC	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10934

DS, RE:"both block level and file level commands over IP" M. Lynch analyst, Steve Milunovich, describes the difference in his March 7, 2000 report on EMC: "Today we have two worlds, NAS and SAN. In a typical NAS installation, HTTP and email applications issue file level commands because they are inherently dealing with files. These commands are then converted into IP packets that Ethernet transports over the copper wire. The typical SAN installation does away with the protocol layer and issues block level commands directly into the Fibre Channel. Database and OLTP [On-Line Transaction Processing] applications work with small pieces of data that are part of a large database file. Generally, it is better to work with block level commands for these applications (this may not be true for databases that journal every transaction in a separate file). For large sequential data applications, such as streaming video, block level commands are efficient and large amounts of data can be moved with little overhead. In the future, the ability to effectively run both file and block level commands over IP will give users more flexibility. They will be able to run HTTP, email, database, video, and OLTP applications over an increasingly fast IP network. In this combined world, every storage device is attached to the network. Some devices, however, will take in file commands (e.g., NetApp filers) and some will accept block commands (e.g., new EMC Symmetrix). We believe this combined world will significantly accelerate the growth of the NAS/SAN market." This is a good explanation of how SANs & NASs work. It makes sense that providing "blocks" of data from a large database and "blocks" of data for video streaming to users is efficient. Yet, the database market and video streaming are two of the fastest growing areas of NTAP's business. Maybe NTAP filers are selling to database customers "that journal every transaction in a separate file" as it says above. I would appreciate your thoughts on the subject. This might be a good issue to discuss for your "contacts". Best, Duncan