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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KJ. Moy who wrote (20873)	2/23/1999 10:34:00 PM
From: trendmastr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

This is the first news story I've seen on Dell fc initiative: delayed 20 mins - disclaimerTuesday February 23, 8:16 pm Eastern Time Dell, with partners, expands data storage line-up By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) on Tuesday introduced a new line of corporate data storage equipment designed to position the top-ranked direct supplier of personal computers for rapid growth in the emerging field. Dell said it has begun shipping new PowerVault storage area network systems to customers, expanding the range of the products it offers to work with powerful computer servers and act as a replacement for higher-cost mainframe data storage systems. The Round Rock, Texas-based company entered the market last June with promises to offer competitive pricing more than 50 percent below those offered by suppliers of existing high-volume storage systems. ''We're driving the storage industry just as we did the computer industry,'' Dell vice chairman Kevin Rollins said in a conference call Tuesday afternoon unveiling the new products. He vowed to attack the storage business with the high- volume manufacturing and direct distribution strategies that have made Dell a major supplier of desktop, server and notebook PCs -- No. 2 in the United States and No. 3 in the world. The new products include Dell's PowerVault 50F Fibre Channel switch, PowerVault 35F bridge and Fibre Channel Optical host bus adapter -- technology that takes advantage of the latest high-speed data connections to provide large scale corporate data storage at lower cost than traditional storage. In addition to new products, Dell said that, through a joint effort with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) it has developed new software that makes it possible for multiple PowerEdge servers running Microsoft Windows NT to share a single storage system. With this technology, called Dell OpenManage Storage Consolidation software, customers can consolidate important business data onto a single, high-performance storage system, making the data easier to manage and less costly to maintain. Dell said it is the first major computer vendor -- rivals include IBM (NYSE:IBM - news), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP - news) and Compaq Computer (NYSE:CPQ - news) -- to offer a fibre channel switch to work on computer systems running Windows NT storage environments. The new product provides customers up to eight times the performance of most fibre channel hub products now sold for Storage Area Networks (SANs). Switches are used in storage area networks to direct data between a computer server and the storage subsystem equipment. Dell's new fibre channel switch, the PowerVault 50F, will be priced at about $1,350 per port, which Dell expects will be 30 percent below most fibre channel switches that run rival UNIX-based computers used to run key business operations. The company also announced a range of alliances with makers of data storage equipment and related systems management software, including Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE:STK - news), Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE:SEG - news), Veritas Software (Nasdaq:VRTS - news), which is merging into a Seagate unit. Dell products also are designed to work with systems management software from Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA - news) and IBM Corp.'s (NYSE:IBM - news) Tivoli. The strategy brings together many rivals of EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC - news), the dominant supplier of high-volume data storage. Despite the move, EMC stock gained $3.75 to near record levels of $107.94 in consolidated U.S. stock exchange trading. A Dell official said many of its corporate customers are delaying new spending on storage systems in 1999 to focus on fixing potential Year 2000 software glitches, but the company anticipates experimentation and system redesign to lead to a wave of storage purchases by customers next year. Dell stock surged more than $3 in afternoon trading before falling back in late-afternoon to trade at $86, up $1.12 on the day in heavy trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tm

To: KJ. Moy who wrote (20873)	2/24/1999 11:47:00 PM
From: Eleder2020	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

>>>EMC holds a technology edge over Dell and others, analysts say. EMC targets the high end of the NT storage market. Its systems typically cost more than $1 million. Dell's SANs will target midrange NT networks. Dell will offer a system that connects four midrange servers to 720 gigabytes of storage for less than $250,000. ''Our goal is not to compete head to head with EMC in the high end,'' Dell's Reinis said. ''They've been in that market space a lot longer.'' EMC and Dell likely will meet in the middle someday, says John McArthur, an analyst with Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp. <<<< KJ, It seems this is how the Brocade and Ancor battle started out also, though it was a death struggle for these two startups at the beginning. Ancor got beaten up and had their lunch money stolen in that matchup.Brocade just couldn't quite finish Ancor off much to the dismay of some Silicon Valley VC's.Brocade could of just touted the future of FC(and why to invest early) to their hearts content without Ancor benefiting(the two companies get compared).I imagine if Brocade had been successful in killing Ancor off , they'd already be public.Certainly with Ancor running second in business outlook and 1st technically, Brocade may have factored that into the possible rewards of going public. Ancor who started out as king came so close to having Brocade suck the life out of them after self inflicting wounds. You know what they say about attacking the king....... Looks like there is going to be money for everyone in this ready to boil over pot. It seems this was a good start for Dell(and a good win for Brocade) to get their feet wet in SANs networking with a huge built in customer base(brand name). Dell certainly defined their objectives quite well and they get to learn on the job on small networks. Any updates on how you see the FC industry evolving. Ed