Greg H., Have decided to put some Dell things on one page.
They gave a keynote at Comdex...
Monday November 13 07:15 PM EST
Dell not embracing Web pads
By John G. Spooner, ZDNet News
Michael Dell tells Comdex that he sees little interest for Web pad devices. But storage and servers? That's another ballgame.
The PC isn't dead yet, but that doesn't mean that Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) isn't focusing on higher margin servers and storage.
Known for its PC business, two thirds of Dell's profits and half of its revenue come from non-desktop PCs, CEO Michael Dell said during his Comdex/Fall '00 keynote speech.
Dell also used his Comdex soapbox to talk about Web pads, portables, and prices.
Dell is focusing major effort on its servers and line of storage products as areas that help drive growth.
"We think that in the next five years there will be five times the number of servers when compared to today," Dell said.
When it comes to pricing, "we believe that the same thing that happened with the desktop and notebook market will happen with servers and storage," he said. "Dell helps bring down prices via (the use of) industry standards. Now you'll start to see that happen in servers and storage."
key3media.com
Dell And MSFT
Dell, Microsoft join forces in storage gambit
By Joe Wilcox
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 23, 2000, 7:50 a.m. PT
Dell Computer and Microsoft on Monday entered into a strategic alliance for developing advanced storage systems.
The companies revealed few details about their plans, which would pit Dell PowerVault systems and Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system against some of the biggest names in storage, including Compaq Computer, EMC and IBM.
The first product, using Dell hardware and Microsoft software, is expected to reach the market during the first half of 2001, the companies said.
The development agreement is Dell's first major storage announcement since the company established a separate storage division in September.
The collaboration is an extension of both companies' contribution to Dell's PowerApp "server appliance" efforts unveiled in April. Server appliances--small, limited-function devices geared for specialized tasks such as email or data storage--are one of the industry's growth areas, according to market researcher IDC.
Many server appliances, which rely on data stored on servers, run on the Linux or Unix operating systems. The Dell-Microsoft partnership brings Windows 2000 running on standard hardware, such as Intel processors, to the market segment. IDC forecasts the server appliance market will exceed $11 billion by 2004, up from $1 billion in 1999. Market watcher Gartner is more bullish, forecasting $14 billion by 2004.
"There was some question about where Microsoft was in the server appliance space and relative to Windows 2000," said Bill Veghte, vice president of Microsoft's embedded appliance platform group. "And this agreement really underscores that Windows 2000 is a great solution for network-attached storage."
More commentary
The companies' next area of attack is entry-level and midrange network-attached storage (NAS) devices. But neither Dell nor Microsoft offered much detail, saying only that a product offering up to 1.5 terabytes of storage consolidation would ship by mid-2001.
Technology Business Research analyst Brooks Gray said the partnership makes sense because the "midrange NAS is going to be a hot market that has the potential to steal business from the midrange SAN (storage area network) market." Dell's tried-and-true model of selling for less to gain market share quickly could pay off in that storage segment, he said.
"With Microsoft and Quantum technology satisfying Dell's low-end NAS product line--up to 1.5 terabytes--I would expect the next area of focus to be in the 1.5-terabyte to 5-terabyte range," Gray said. "Dell is currently able to achieve that capacity through an OEM agreement with Network Appliance, but that relationship is being phased out. It is a high probability that Dell will form another alliance in the midrange NAS market over the next several months, or possibly make an acquisition."
The Dell-Microsoft product is expected to begin filling the void vacated by NetApp's high-speed file servers. Dell plans to stop selling NetApp products because of sales conflicts.
Dell hopes to do with storage what it did with PCs and workstations. Typically the company focuses on standard hardware components and Microsoft software to break into markets where it has negligible market share. Rather than reaping high margins, Dell focuses on moving volume at a lower price than competitors while managing component, manufacturing and distribution costs to pull in profits.
The strategy propelled Dell to the top of the workstation market in less than four years. The company has been trying to recreate this success with servers, specialized products such as server appliances, and now storage.
"You have to break in, get the people comfortable with the products. Pricing would help drive it," Dell chief financial officer James Schneider said in a recent exclusive interview.
The strategy has paid off in the server arena, Schneider said. "Now we're No. 2. And in fact, in the U.S. we're bigger than IBM and (Hewlett-Packard) combined."
Dell considers the yet-to-be-named product an extension of the PowerVault 705N storage server unveiled in early September. The 705N is not a Dell product but Quantum's Snap Server 4100.
The NAS servers are expected to complement systems acquired from ConvergeNet in September 1999. The $340 million acquisition thrust Dell full speed into the storage area network (SAN) market. Unlike NAS, in which storage is attached to servers, SANs use high-speed Fibre Channel technology to connect servers and storage devices.
Cahners In-Stat Group forecasts both storage markets to reach $2 billion in sales this year and to exceed $10 billion by 2004.
With their commodity gambit, Dell and Microsoft take on some stiff competition, such as Compaq, EMC and IBM. But Russ Holt, vice president and general manager of Dell's storage systems group, insists that standardization and lower prices will appeal to customers forced to pay $20,000 or more for network-attached storage.
"Up until now, implementation of network-attached storage has been on proprietary operating systems or proprietary platforms," he said. "We want to reset the bar in terms of price performance using standard products."
By focusing on entry-level to midrange systems, Dell and Microsoft hope to tap a market they feel is underserved by storage giant EMC and others. And Dell is willing to play hardball to win market share.
"EMC is probably operating around 60 points of margin, while we are something like 70 percent less than that," Holt said.
From QLGC archives....
February 23, 1999 Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editor's Contact:
Irene Santoyo
QLogic Corporation
Phone: 714/668-5359
Fax: 714/668-5008
E-mail: i_santoyo@qlc.com
QLogic Teams With Dell to Develop Storage Consolidation Product for the NT Market
COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 1999--QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), an industry leading designer and supplier of Storage Area Network (SAN) data delivery products, today announced support for Dell Computer Corporation's new storage consolidation and backup solution for the Microsoft NT environment. QLogic's QLA2100 Fibre Channel host adapter is the critical interface technology enabling connectivity between Dell's PowerEdge(R) servers and PowerVault(TM) storage systems on the SAN.
The interface between the computing platform and the Storage Area Network is a critical component in overall SAN performance and reliability. Designed well, this interface reduces performance-robbing interrupts to the computing resource and eliminates throughput bottlenecks. The interface architecture designed by QLogic for Fibre Channel-based SAN interfaces has addressed both the performance and overhead opportunities with a single award-winning design.
The QLogic QLA2100 host adapter features a dedicated on-board RISC processor, which significantly reduces CPU overhead while increasing the performance of user applications. This is particularly important to applications such as on-line database, data warehousing and ISP WEB hosting. In addition, QLogic's direct access frame buffer design results in an unobstructed data path allowing the highest throughput available in the marketplace today. Large on-line database backup applications and video streaming applications receive the most benefit from this design feature.
"QLogic recognized the growth potential of the Microsoft NT platform in the enterprise space early in the development of Fibre Channel. We targeted a price/performance solution that would allow a partner such as Dell Computer who has the vision, technical prowess and unique delivery channel to rapidly expand the adoption of Fibre Channel and SAN technology," said Larry Fortmuller, vice president and general manager of QLogic's Computer Systems Group. "We are very pleased to partner with Dell whose focus and determination in delivering best-of-class solutions to its customers is shared and supported by QLogic. The Dell PowerVault SAN is a solution that will help drive adoption of Fibre Channel and other SAN solutions benefiting the entire industry."
"QLogic has played an integral role in developing PowerVault SAN, enabling us to offer our customers high-performance, low-overhead SAN connectivity, resulting in superior SAN application performance and reliability," said Kevin Reinis, director of PowerVault storage for Dell's Enterprise Systems Group. "We are pleased to have QLogic as a partner as we move into the next phase of our standards-based storage strategy."
QLogic offers a comprehensive family of products that enable the reliable, efficient and high performance delivery of data to and from SAN end-nodes. QLogic is unmatched in the array of silicon, board-level products and software the company provides to enable the delivery of data for all SAN attached server, workstation, JBOD/RAID subsystem, tape library, tape drive and disk drive components. By focusing the company's expertise on data delivery to all SAN nodes, QLogic is uniquely positioned to deliver high levels of interoperability along with high-performance and reliability.
About QLogic
QLogic Corporation is a leading designer and supplier of semiconductor and board-level I/O and enclosure management products. The company's products provide high-performance interface connections for computer systems and their attached data storage peripherals, such as hard disk drives, tape drives and RAID subsystems. In addition, QLogic provides enclosure management products that monitor and communicate management information related to components that are critical to computer system and storage subsystem reliability and availability. QLogic's highly integrated, fully featured solutions are targeted at the computer system, storage device and storage subsystem marketplaces.
The company is utilizing its expertise to develop products for emerging standards such as Fibre Channel and Ultra3, as well as, SAF-TE, SES, IPMI enclosure management solutions.
For more information about QLogic and its product lines, contact QLogic Corp., 3545 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626; telephone: 800/662-4471 (sales); 714/438-2200 (corporate); fax: 714/668-5008; home page qlc.com.
With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company wishes to advise readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include new and changing technologies and customer acceptance of those technologies; a change in semiconductor foundry capacity or conditions; fluctuations in the growth of I/O markets; fluctuations or cancellations in orders from OEM customers; the Company's ability to compete effectively with other companies; cancellation of OEM products associated with design wins; and reductions in the need for space and increased costs of operations due to facility relocations. Carrying additional expansion space may increase costs and adversely impact future earnings.
These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Form S-3, Form 10-K, and Form 10-Q.
Trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of the companies with which they are associated.
Another of the same date...
QLogic's QLA2100 Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter to Connect Dell's New PowerEdge 6300 Server and PowerVault 650F Fibre Channel Storage Subsystem
The High Bandwidth, Throughput and Reliability Requirements for These Industry-Leading Systems Demand an Interface Architecture That Delivers Superior Performance and Data Center Resiliency
COSTA MESA, Calif., July 14, 1998 - QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), an industry leader in I/O technology and a leading designer of Fibre Channel host interconnect solutions, will provide the Fibre Channel interconnect technology for Dell Computer Corp.'s recently announced PowerEdge 6300 server and PowerVault 650F Fibre Channel external storage subsystem.
QLogic's unique, award-winning I/O architecture combined with the high-performance Dell PowerEdge server and PowerVault Fibre Channel-based storage subsystem will help Dell deliver mission-critical systems that were once the exclusive domain of high-end UNIX systems. To achieve the level of performance and reliability that mission-critical systems demand, an interconnect technology capable of moving data at high speeds, while balancing the use of system processors, is required.
QLogic has a proven track record of providing reliable, high-performance storage interfaces for high-end, data center class systems through established partnerships with RISC-based server and workstation partners. The combination of QLogic's product with Dell's PowerEdge 6300 and PowerVault 650F will bring similar mission-critical storage capabilities to standard Windows NT and NetWare environments.
"Performance, reliability and availability are key attributes for Dell's enterprise customers, and QLogic's QLA2100 Fibre Channel host bus adapter led the field in our evaluation of technologies to meet these needs," said Bruce Kornfeld, manager of storage product marketing for Dell. "The combination of Dell's PowerEdge 6300 server and PowerVault 650F storage subsystem will help provide customers enterprise-class capabilities that were once only available with RISC- and UNIX-based systems."
"This agreement with Dell establishes a strong position for QLogic in the rapidly expanding marketplace for high-end, Intel architecture-based servers and their associated Fibre Channel storage subsystems," said Larry Fortmuller, vice president and general manager of QLogic's Computer Systems Group. "In addition, it establishes a partnership with an industry leader that shares our commitment to quality and superior price performance."
The QLA2100 uses the award-winning ISP2100 64-bit/33 MHz PCI-to-Fibre Channel chip, with internal transceivers, and provides maximum I/Os per second with minimum CPU utilization, according to recent Iometer benchmark reports.
About QLogic QLogic Corp. is a leading designer and supplier of semiconductor and board-level I/O products. The company's products provide high-performance interface connections for computer systems and their attached data storage peripherals, such as hard disk and tape drives, CD-ROM drives and RAID subsystems. QLogic provides I/O technology solutions by designing and marketing single-chip controller and adapter board products for both sides of the computer peripheral device interlink, or "bus."
Historically, the company has targeted the high-performance sector of the I/O market, focusing primarily on the SCSI standard. The company is utilizing its I/O expertise to develop products for emerging I/O standards such as Fibre Channel, which is experiencing early industry acceptance as a higher performance solution that maintains signal integrity while allowing for increased connectivity between a computer system and its data storage peripherals.
If you go to EMLX they don't have a search funtion of their site so you don't get anything there.
On Dells site if you search QLGC you get stuff like this...
PowerVault™ Fibre Channel Firmware and Software Upgrade
Service Overview
This service provides on-site upgrade of firmware and software on an existing PowerVault Fibre Channel storage system to allow the customer to take advantage of new system features and enhanced performance. The scope of this service is to update the PowerVault fibre channel configuration consisting of 1-2 previously installed servers. Upgrades involving additional servers (more than two) require the customer to purchase the appropriate quantity of Firmware and Software upgrade (without travel, same location) service. The service provides upgrades to existing PowerVault fibre channel components to the current revisions, which includes updates to Qlogic Host Bus Adapters (HBA) firmware and OS drivers, PowerVault 650F firmware (FLARE code), PowerVault OpenManage™ data management software modules (such as Data Agent and Data Supervisor).
Summary of Customer Responsibilities/Notes:
The customer is responsible for having a complete and current backup prior to the upgrade to safeguard against any accidental loss of data. Dell will have no liability for loss of data or computer programs.
The Upgrade Kit does not include "optional" Dell OpenManage software, which is only available on customer-purchased CDs.
This service does not include any software activity not specifically mentioned in this document.
This service will be provided during the hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm (local customer time), Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.
This document provides only an overview of the service steps and customer responsibilities.
Key Service Steps:
Obtain customer signature verifying that a recent system backup has been performed.
Record current PowerVault configuration.
Uninstall base Dell OpenManage Software Components (e.g. Data Agent for NT and Data Supervisor) and any applicable optional Dell OpenManage Software.
Update the Qlogic device driver and the Qlogic BIOS (using the Upgrade Kit).
Conclusions Dell seems initially focused on NAS and low end rather than high-end SANs. They use QLGC HBAs currently for some connections. So they may not be a huge buyer now.
Maybe they will want some of the newer and better HBAs for some uses. Maybe they will want to move up the market and connect their NAS to the SANs.
Any Dell experts who can tell us what Dell might want from QLGC in the future? Thanks in advance. |
