Hewlett-Packard Co. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. recently said they would team to develop products that use HP’s VersaStor virtualization technology to make it easier to manage storage-area networks.
The companies have reached a development agreement to combine HP’s VersaStor technology with switches from Brocade’s SilkWorm product family. HP VersaStor in combination with the company’s OpenView CASA (continuous access storage appliance) software and Brocade’s switches would let network traffic be directed intelligently according to a user’s needs, the companies said.
EMC reports uptick in sales, but yearly loss
EMC Corp. recently reported a net loss of US$119 million for fiscal year 2002 and a fourth-quarter loss of US$64 million. Still, the company’s earnings report showed vast improvement over last year’s results, which included an annual loss of US$508 million.
Net income for the fourth quarter of 2002, excluding an after-tax restructuring and special charge of US$117 million, was US$53 million, putting EMC back in the black for the first time in more than a year. Earlier this year, EMC had said it expected to post a loss this quarter but was optimistic over midrange arrays bringing in better than expected earnings. EMC said its consolidated revenue for 2002 totalled US$5.44 billion, down from US$7.09 billion for its 2001 fiscal year. The Hopkinton, Mass.-based data storage giant said its fourth-quarter revenue was US$1.49 billion, 18 per cent higher than the US$1.26 billion it reported for the same period last year. EMC said its sales were led by the best year ever for its Clarion arrays
HP, Microsoft broaden NAS partnership
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Microsoft Corp. are expanding their partnership on NAS (network attached storage) products in an effort to boost sales and improve products, the companies said.
The two-and-a-half year-old partnership for Windows Powered NAS products will now also include joint training of engineers and aligned sales and marketing teams. Also, sales partners will get access to implementation blueprints and case studies, Zane Adam, director of product management and marketing at Microsoft’s Enterprise Storage division said. HP and Microsoft have their eyes set on businesses looking to cut back the number of servers they run, but add storage hardware. A huge multibillion-dollar market opportunity within the HP customer base alone, Adam said.
