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To: JRI who wrote (10461)	2/19/2001 10:48:50 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13572

Hi JRI, I've put a few hours into the storage issue and I've come away with a couple of conclusions. First of all, let me preface what I say with what I think is going to become to predominant medium of interchange of data over the internet. My candidate is gigabit and 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE), it is by far the most easily recognized, easily administered protocols I can think of because of the thousands of network admins who have become extremely familiar with Ethernet since its inception in 1973. That said, I always seek to find storage solutions that are easily compatible with IEEE 802.3xx standards. Thus, a company like BRCD, with its proprietary fiber channel architecture may have achieved a temporarily strong market, but it is not, IMHVHO, the direction that the market is going to be taking in the future. It will remain a strong niche player. It is a well managed company. I have owned NTAP in the past and have followed the company fairly extensively. There are a number of bulls on the SI-NTAP thread who can do a far better job than me at explaining NTAP strong points. I'm thinking of Down South, in particular, as someone who has an excellent handle on the NAS (network accessible storage) market, where NTAP controls 48% of the market. [[Here's a DS classic post: Message 13945051 ]] There is only one significant competitor in NAS, and that is EMC, which has a technically inferior, but marketing-wise superior offering. EMC has gained 5% market share in NAS over the past year. Thanks largely to a superior marketing department. EMC is, of course, the leader in SAN (storage area networks). And it is fairly undisputed in that role. SUNW is trying to move into the space, but I see the SUNW solution as being less than a compelling value. The market for storage devices is similar to that for bandwidth, in that if the price is infinitely low, the demand for storage will be infinitely high. I have heard some projections for the sale of storage related devices and services to be moderating this year to a greater extent than had been previously forecast. This is just hearsay, so don't take it to the bank. But it certainly wouldn't be a surprising development. Re: Regardless of the real implications, the quote Ruettgers likes to use is mind-boggling: "More information to be created in next 3 years than in the last 40 thousand"... I am unfamiliar with Reuttgers. Can you amplify on this source? I don't doubt that there will be an explosion in information in the next few years. I'm seeing some huge numbers for the information requirements for bioinformatics, for instance. Best, Ray :)