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

To: w2j2 who wrote (1208)	5/2/1999 3:11:00 PM
From: George Dawson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

Walter, I'm not so sure about it. There are some interesting parallels between the way FC is developing and GE development. The main differences were the shorter ramp up and the fact that many people are able to build GE ASICs. On the FC side the forecast for RAID suppliers alone is 45B alone by 2002. There are recent successes by EMC and IBM GS. All the big companies including chip makers, integrators/networkers, and PC makers know that the storage side is where the business is and will be moving to get a piece of that action. I see it as one of the main driving forces of the high tech industry at this time. George

To: w2j2 who wrote (1208)	5/2/1999 11:23:00 PM
From: Kerry Lee	Respond to of 4808

<<Kerry, I don't think FC SANs present a big enough revenue opportunity for Cisco, at the present time. imho wj>> You are correct from the perspective that usually it takes a strong threat to nudge the Number 1 player to move at a more aggressive pace. Case in point: MSFT's Internet moves were slow/miniscule until NSCP gained the initial market/mindshare and provided the threat that galvanized Gates/MSFT to change gears virtually overnight. From a FC market perspective, COMS was the viable competitor that would have forced CSCO to quickly move into FC..instead, CSCO now has the luxury of sitting back and observing who the winners and losers will be in the competitive SANscape before they move in ( probably via acquisition ). The wildcards might be newly emerging communications giants like Nortel, Lucent and Alcatel since the old line networkers like Bay and Cabletron have either been taken out or they are on the block..For that matter, COMS is the subject of takeover rumors.