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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. K. G. who wrote (3896)	8/23/2001 12:05:59 AM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4808

Denis K G., Thanks for the link. I'll read it a few more times. I am looking forward to the fall conference schedule and new products.. Here is how DELL did last Q...the enterprise part did pretty good? Dell Posts Loss Of $101 Million Dell Computer said Thursday that second-quarter revenue fell 1% from a year ago, to $7.6 billion, while net income fell 28%, to $433 million. Including a $742 million charge against earnings (taken to cover costs associated with layoffs and other restructuring moves), the build-to-order PC and server maker posted a loss of $101 million for the period ended Aug. 3. Revenue from sales in the Americas fell 3%, though product shipments in the region rose 14%. Despite the gloomy numbers, Dell appears well positioned to capitalize on any turnaround that may be in the offing as it continues to build its presence in key industry segments. Second-quarter shipments of enterprise systems--including servers, workstations, and storage products--grew 33%, according to Dell. And, in an indication that businesses are looking to consolidate server infrastructures and save on floor space, Dell said shipments of rack-mountable servers doubled from the previous year. Worldwide, Dell said, shipments of its Intel-based PowerEdge servers, which comprise the bulk of its server line, grew 36%. CEO Michael Dell said in a statement that the company's results indicate that more businesses are eschewing expensive, proprietary offerings in favor of less-expensive systems that use increasingly powerful off-the-shelf technology. "More and more customers want industry-standard computing products and services, including at the enterprise level," Dell said. But low prices are cutting both ways for Dell. The company shipped 15% more servers in the second quarter in the United States compared with the same period last year, but its revenue from those sales fell 32.4%. Dell also said cutthroat pricing led to a year-over-year decline in gross margins of 18.6 In a report released Wednesday, research firm Gartner Dataquest said the overall U.S. server market contracted 27%. However, analysts say Dell is better positioned than rivals such as Compaq and Hewlett-Packard to withstand a prolonged technology recession. "Operationally, they're leaner than anybody else in the business," says Brooks Gray, a Technology Business Research analyst. Overall, Dell said, product shipments increased 19% compared with a year ago. Also on the upside, the company reported that sales of notebook computers jumped 22% worldwide, while shipments of PCs to consumers in the Americas increased 39%. -- Paul McDougall

To: D. K. G. who wrote (3896)	8/23/2001 12:30:36 AM
From: J Fieb	Respond to of 4808

A conference in Sept.... storageworldconference.com Exhibitors.... Vicom » Managed Storage » Sun Microsystems » 3ware » San Valley » Quantum Corp. » BMC Software » Inrange » Tricord » Yotta Yotta » Trellisoft » Columbia Data Products » LSI Logic » Procom » Xythos Software » TrueSAN » Sony » OTG Software » GRAU Data Storage » Lefthand Networks » InfoStor Marc Farley says....You don't want to hear about products that are not on the market. Storage Decisions 2001 Preview: Mapping out a solution Date: 17 Aug 2001 Author: Maryann Tripp, Assistant Editor Marc Farley It's a big, bad, confusing world out there, but with the right information and a well thought out plan users can take the pain out of implementing storage networks. From SANs to NAS and everything in between, independent consultant Marc Farley has insight into the possibilities. Farley, an independent consultant and author of the book "Building Storage Networks," is a scheduled speaker at the Storage Decisions 2001 conference in Chicago next month. SearchStorage Assistant Editor Maryann Tripp taps Farley for tips on finding the right storage solution. searchStorage: Some of the technology involved in building a SAN is complex. How has technology evolved to make it a more viable and cost effective solution for users? Farley: There are more management tools coming out and I think over time the industry is beginning to understand more and more of what people want. This market is almost, by necessity, a technology driven industry and as the market becomes more familiar with the technology, it is feasible to get feedback from people on what they want and I think that is what you?re starting to see. I think the biggest change is the emergence of management tools that make it easier. "The implementation plan should probably have three months of internal testing before going live. Just be very conservative in the roll out of it." searchStorage: What's the number one reason businesses want to build a SAN? Farley: The main reason businesses want to build a SAN is for data availability. The SAN architecture removes the single server system as a bottleneck or point of failure. The Internet phenomenon created a requirement to have systems available to customers and business partners on a 24x7 basis and is really one of the main drivers of SAN technology. Some people might say it's scalability but really the potential that SANs give you is that you can get that scalability without losing availability. You change a server without having to down your storage so there's a lot of flexibility that goes into that. searchStorage: Along the same line, what's the number one reason businesses would want to choose NAS appliances? Farley: NAS appliances are complete solutions and they also provide availability for multiple machines and there are already a lot of management tools built into some of the NAS products out there. There is simplicity in the low-end products that are just plug and play and a lot of management power in the high-end products. searchStorage: What is the biggest mistake users make when building a SAN? Farley: That's a good question. I'm not sure what the biggest mistake is, but I think most users are going about it in a pretty prudent way: they are going slow, trying to understand what is there. I'm not aware of what I would consider a lot of mistakes being made and frankly people can't afford to make mistakes. I don't think there's a problem with solving people's mistakes. I think people are being very careful. searchStorage: What's the first question I need to ask myself before building a SAN? Farley: You need to ask, 'How do I get the resources to make it work? Where do the resources come from? Do I get them internally, or do I expect to get them from vendors or independent consultants?' searchStorage: What's the first question a user should ask the vendor when building a SAN? Farley: I think the first question should be along the lines of compatibility and interoperability. Not so much broad-based, but just drive toward trying to understand which solutions are out there. Then, understanding what the applicability is of those solutions towards the different systems that are running. And again, then you get to the applications on those systems. So, ask things like, 'Does the SAN solution map to my systems and does it map to my applications?' searchStorage: What don't I want to hear from a vendor, when building a SAN? Farley: I'm not sure that I have answer for that but probably it would be that they are introducing a product in a few months. You don't want to hear about products that are not on the market. It's interesting because you do want to know about those products but you can't plan an installation on a product that doesn't exist yet. I think you should go with tried and true products that are on the market. Start there, but don't leave your installation waiting for a product to be delivered. searchStorage: What's the smartest move you ever saw or heard a business do when it was building a SAN? infrastructure. Farley: I think a lot of people do this: setting up a practice SAN and testing it. It takes a lot of testing. The implementation plan should probably have three months of internal testing before going live. Just be very conservative in the roll out of it. searchStorage: How can I justify the cost of building a SAN to my CFO? Farley: Know what the costs are and see if you can project them. But I think where you want to look is at the business interruption potential that you might have or lack of availability. Also the ability to upgrade systems and storage separately means you have far less down time, planning, purchasing and reacting to emergencies than you used to do working in a SCSI environment. The real justification is in the administration time spent responding to problems. It means you can have a smoother operation and there are many benefits to that. searchStorage: How long can I expect the process to take from research to implementation? Farley: A year to 15 months.