Sun Microsystems Inc., in an attempt to get a jump on the storage virtualization market, has acquired start-up Pirus Networks Inc. for an undisclosed stock-for-stock transaction.
Pirus makes a storage switch that promises to help businesses consolidate mixed storage devices and servers under a single management interface and speed access to stored data. The Storage Utility Switch PSX-1000 lets block-based storage-area network, file-based network-attached storage and server-attached storage data be managed together. Sun announced that the Pirus switch will be integrated into its N1 architecture and strategy, which provides companies with software and utilities to let them create virtual pools of computing power that can be applied to business tasks as and when required. Pirus will become a business unit of Sun.
N+I Atlanta 2003, Canadian shows nixed
Key3Media Group Inc. said it is cancelling NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta next year, along with four other trade shows in North America.
Comdex in Chicago, Vancouver and Montreal, and Seybold Seminars in New York will also be scrapped next year. The cancelling of these long-time Key3Media events reflects travel cutbacks among North American businesses and the reallocation of marketing dollars by technology vendors away from trade shows, observers say. The firm has seen both vendor and attendee numbers decrease at many of its technology trade shows, such as NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas in May. Key3Media will also close its office in Needham, Mass. Though Key3Media says it has not tallied final attendance numbers for N+I Atlanta – which ran from Sept. 9 to 12 – the company says it expects attendance at the show to be off around 40 per cent from the 50,000 attendees it attracted in 2001.
Key3Media’s major North American trade shows for 2003 will include Comdex Fall Las Vegas and Comdex Canada, NetWorld+Interop in Toronto and Las Vegas, and Seybold Seminars in San Francisco.