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To: Don Hurst who wrote (4683)	2/10/1999 2:55:00 PM
From: Robert Scott Diver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8218

Shark info: cbs.marketwatch.com IBM (IBM) said its Shark product for enterprise storage is on schedule to debut in the second half of 1999. "It's going extremely well in test," said James T. Vanderslice, senior vice president in IBM's data technology group. "It's very hot." The Shark architecture is intended to allow upgrades in disk storage over various operating systems. It's seen as a challenge to EMC (EMC), which has been winning market share in the category. IBM sees growth opportunity in providing equipment to technology makers and in its information technology business. cbs.marketwatch.com For its part, IBM says its Shark enterprise storage product for mainframes is due out in the second half. "It's going extremely well in its test," said James Vanderslice, senior vice president of the company's data technology group.

To: Don Hurst who wrote (4683)	2/10/1999 5:44:00 PM
From: Arrow Hd.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8218

Vanderslice must have done a great job, stock up six or so. The advantage EMC has had is they have used industry standard components to keep cost/expense down and then added in the function and performance they want with microcode. They restrict this microcode through licensing and require a subsequent user to come back to them to get a new license including paying a second time for some of the featurized function and performance. IBM licenses the microcode (called Licensed Internal Code) to the machine and the "rightful possessor" of the LIC is licensed to execute the code and run standard diagnostics. But when the machine moves the LIC moves with the machine to the next end-user including all the function, performance and capacity that was purchased by the original owner or their lessor. EMC does not do that. The second user pays a fee to licence the LIC and pays again for any LIC implemented features. This inhibits EMC DASD movements in the secondary market and lowers the owners residual value since some of this value represented by LIC features does not move with the machine. If EMC does not want the DASD to cascade into the secondary market and compete with new DASD from their factory they simply tell the original owner that the relicensing of the LIC by their buyer is going to be very high and it disincents movement. What happens is it does cascade but within the enterprise not out on the open market. EMC will not even license LIC to competitors such as IBM since they dont want any competitor to exercise their DASD and write up competitive reports or reverse engineer. On the other hand they do this to IBM and other vendors. So there is no love lost here. There is an intense effort on many fronts by many companies to become more competitive with EMC and customers are just waiting for that day when their choices are more flexible.