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

To: Brian Malloy who wrote (84538)	8/29/2000 8:20:00 AM
From: PCSS	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Possibly a repeat post .... from Information Week via POWERSIZE.com: Compaq entered the network attached storage business last week with a system capable of holding 1 terabyte of data. It's part of the company's effort to establish itself in the fast-growing market for midrange storage and related sub-systems. The TaskSmart N-Series appliance server features instant backup and recovery capabilities and a version of Windows 2000 optimized for file serving. Compaq says the system can be configured in just 30 minutes. The company also maintains that the product is 50% faster than similar systems in its price range. The system starts at $35,000. Companies are increasingly turning to network attached storage systems for fast access to frequently used data. "This [product] bridges the gap between servers and storage," says Mary McDowell, VP and general manager of Compaq's industry standard server group. "It's a natural extension to our server business." McDowell says business implementation of network attached storage by business users will double next year. The new product pits Compaq against more-specialized players such as Network Storage Solutions and Quantum Corp. in a market that will grow to $6.5 billion by 2003, according to Dataquest. Compaq's presence may drive prices down. "They're a commodity player and they can hit price points that smaller players will find difficult to match," says Gartner Group analyst John Enck. Rivals believe they can withstand the competition. "Our economies of scale are pretty reasonable and we think customers are concerned more with value than price alone," says Marc Santora, senior VP of marketing at Network Appliance Inc. Compaq also unveiled a midrange system as an alternative to those of market leader EMC Corp. "Our goal is to bring SAN to an affordable price point," says McDowell. Starting at $19,800 for a 218-Gbyte system, the StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 can scale to more than 4 terabytes of available storage.