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Technology Stocks : MTIC - Is this the next EMC? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark T. Heath who wrote (1006)	1/14/1998 9:44:00 AM
From: jkb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3748

Wednesday January 14, 8:04 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: MTI Technology Corporation MTI Gladiator Wins Top Spot in Coopers & Lybrand Study Competitive Market Analysis of Leading Raid Vendors Positions Gladiator ESS As the System Offering the Highest Functionality When Compared To EMC, Clariion And Sun ANAHEIM, Calif., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- MTI(TM) Technology Corporation (Nasdaq: MTIC - news) today announced the results of a December 1997 Coopers & Lybrand Competitive Market Analysis of leading RAID vendors that positions MTI's Gladiator(TM) ESS as the system offering the ''highest functionality'' at a middle tier price when compared to solutions from EMC(R), Sun Microsystems(R) and CLARiiON(R). The analysis was conducted to provide a buying tool to prospective RAID technology consumers seeking to make an informed buying decision for an open systems solution. Coopers & Lybrand obtained information used to perform the analysis from the individual manufacturers. The analysis compares systems in ten feature areas including reliability, performance, scalability, ease of use, environmentals and cost. ''Purchasers of RAID systems face the daunting task of comparing sets of product features and benefits to map across their needs,'' said Robert Gray, a research manager at International Data Corporation. ''Independent studies can assist end users in making more informed decisions through an organized and methodical evaluation. The game is to access which decision offers the highest present value, given the business benefit stream over the expected life cycle.'' MTI's Gladiator 3200 ESS, according to the analysis, ''demonstrated as much as eight times the bandwidth of its competitors.'' At 1,280 Megabytes per second, it was double that of its nearest competitor, EMC at 640 Megabytes per second. Maximum server to I/O subsystem bandwidth may be used as a primary indicator of a solution's overall performance potential. ''This independent analysis performed by Coopers & Lybrand highlights the important measurable differences among the vendors and suggests what life would be like with a particular vendor's RAID technology solution,'' said Earl Pearlman, MTI president and CEO. ''By using the manufacturers' own specifications, Coopers & Lybrand have given the consumer a tool to focus in on features that are most important to their business needs. We are pleased to state that the analysis draws a clear and compelling picture of MTI as the vendor offering RAID consumers the most functionality, top performance and the absolute best value for their storage investment.'' Each manufacturer was asked to provide their premium hardware configuration for a SCSI-attached device with one terabyte of usable disk space, high availability and high performance. The report listed the solutions and each of their many features. For example, the report pointed out that the number of drives per bus in the configuration could be used to measure the likelihood of saturating an internal SCSI bus. A higher number of buses and fewer drives to each bus provide the best performance. Disk striping is also an important way to anticipate performance. The following table is an excerpt from the report: Features CLARiiON EMC MTI Sun RSM 3000 3700 ESS 3200 Array 2000 I/O bandwidth 160 MB/sec 640 MB/sec 1,280 MB/sec 320 MB/sec Hardware 20 MB/sec 40 MB/sec 80 MB/sec 40 MB/sec Disk Striping Yes No Yes Yes Internal SCSI Buses to Drives 20 8 32 20 Drives Per SCSI Bus 5 16 4 7 While performance and reliability are top concerns, ease of use features determine the operational methods and procedures imposed on the end-user. The report states, ''the broadest support for configuration and monitoring functions is offered by the proposed MTI configuration. Conversely, the EMC solution distinguishes itself in this category by its broad lack of support for many of the configuration and monitoring functions offered by its three competitors.'' For the open systems environment, the size and any special physical requirements for the unit are an important consideration. High heat dissipation may require special cooling while a large footprint and excessive weight make the unit difficult to install. A very heavy unit also requires special flooring. The following table is taken from the report: Feature CLARiiON EMC MTI Sun RSM 3000 3700 ESS 3200 Array 2000 Footprint 7.9 Sq. Ft. 17.4 Sq. Ft. 10.9 Sq. Ft. 8.1 Sq. Ft. Heat dissipation14,000 BTU/hr 30,063 BTU/hr 18,393 BTU/hr 14,450 BTU/hr Weight 880 lbs. 3,820 lbs. 985 lbs. 885 lbs. Special Flooring None Double None None Reinforced ''It is no accident that MTI builds its units to easily function outside the glass house,'' said Kevin J. Liebl, MTI vice president of marketing. ''Today's enterprise environments require flexible open systems solutions. For a site with a mainframe, double reinforced flooring and advanced cooling may not be all that important. But most of our new customers want flexible storage solutions that can be set up in a departmental location and will not need a freight elevator to get them to an upper floor. MTI offers that today.'' The report states that the cost of the solutions divides into three tiers. The top tier is represented by EMC. The middle tier by MTI, and the bottom tier by CLARiiON and Sun. Functionality and cost combine to rate the solution. The report states, ''The highest functionality in this comparison is offered by the MTI solution at a mid-level price in this market segment. A somewhat lower level of functionality is offered by CLARiiON and Sun solutions at a reduction in cost. EMC's solution represents opposing extremes of this comparison by exhibiting the highest list price combined with the lowest level of functionality of the group.'' Copies of the complete report may be obtained from Coopers and Lybrand or from MTI's website at mti.com. MTI's mission is to be the premier provider of high-performance, cross- platform data storage management solutions for the enterprise. MTI integrates distributed data management software, a hierarchy of modular storage systems and on-site services to meet the mass storage needs of its customers. Headquartered in Anaheim, CA, the Company offers services and support from more than 40 offices in the United States and Europe. MTI may be reached by phone: 800-999-9MTI, fax: 714-693-2256 or e-mail: info@mti.com. Information can also be accessed via MTI On-Line, the Company's World Wide Web server on the Internet at: mti.com. MTI and Gladiator are trademarks of MTI Technology Corporation. All other reference trademarks may be the property of others. This press release includes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's products and performance, which are subject to change. The actual results may differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statement. SOURCE: MTI Technology Corporation More Quotes and News: MTI Technology Corp (Nasdaq:MTIC - news) Related News Categories: computer hardware, computers

To: Mark T. Heath who wrote (1006)	1/14/1998 10:25:00 AM
From: Duncan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3748

<<"Looks like several blocks of 10 or 20K each. I'd love to know who that was." After seeing the insiders sales info posted earlier today, I'm afraid to ask.>> Mark, I'd be shocked if these larger block sales came from insiders. We are too close to the EPS release for management to permit buying and/or selling of MTIC shares. It's called a "blackout" period. Call management or Frank Yoshino to find out when the blackout period began and when it ends. The sales probably came from an institution...who's concerned by the weakness in the stock...or who wants to park his money elsewhere...lots of good opportunities on a fundamental basis these days. It also may have been the firm whose analyst just lowered their rating...or dropped coverage...as the firm may have cleaned out their inventory. But I don't see any house lowering their rating on the wires. Frankly, I'm not too concerned. We haven't seen a pre-announcement from MTIC...so I believe we'll meet or exceed target EPS for the quarter/year. With the market volatility in recent weeks, this trading activity doesn't concern me much...particularly with the razor thin volume...and I'm not going to put much credence in my speculative efforts or others. Money managers and investment houses move money around on a whim. Maybe I'm just ignorant. Time will tell. Duncan