Storage UPDATE, September 15, 2003

1. Commentary

- Microsoft Launches Windows Storage Server 2003

2. News and Views

- IDC: Worldwide Storage Market Shows Decline, North America Shows Growth

- SGI Aims to Become Storage Giant

3. Announcements

- Find Your Next Job at Our IT Career Center

- Are You Ready for Exchange 2003?

4. Event

- New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!

5. New and Improved

- Provide Disaster Recovery for Your NAS Device

- Get Help When You Implement an SRM Solution

- Tell Us About a Hot Product and Get a T-Shirt!

6. Contact Us

- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

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==== 1. Commentary ====

by Mark Smith, [email protected]

Microsoft Launches Windows Storage Server 2003

On September 10, 2003, Microsoft officially launched Windows Storage Server 2003, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) product based on the Windows Server 2003 architecture. According to IT analysis firm IDC, Microsoft's Windows-based NAS products have a 41 percent market share, which is up from 38 percent only 3 months ago. I've already written a series of articles about Windows Storage Server's features (see the links to those articles at the end of this commentary), so in this column, I focus on other announcements made at the launch.

First, Microsoft asked two early-adopter customers to tell their stories. The first customer, the 108th Division of the US Army, uses Windows Storage Server for file server consolidation and its remote offices. By using Windows Storage Server, the 108th Division has been able to significantly reduce the number of file servers it previously used and has improved its backup and recovery process. The second customer, Draft Worldwide, uses Windows Storage Server and HP's OpenView Storage Mirror, an HP/NSI Software OEM partnership product, for centralized backup for its remote offices. Both customers claimed that the most important factor in their choosing Windows Storage Server over a non-Windows product was that their IT administrators were able to implement Windows Storage Server solutions quickly and without any specialized training. Bill Bailey, network administrator for the 108th Army Division, said, "Storage Server is Windows. There was no learning curve."

At the launch, Microsoft also announced a new storage community at http://www.microsoft.com/storagecommunity . You can log on to the community and find a Windows Storage Server newsgroup, Webcast, white papers, and more resources. Leslie McGuire, Storage Group Manager at Microsoft, said, "Members from Microsoft's storage division's group of developers, sales, support, and product teams are all going to participate in the community on a regular basis." Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise Storage Division, hopes the new storage community plays an active role in improving Microsoft's future storage products. Muglia said, "In addition to supporting our customers, communities are a vital part of the feedback loop we look at for deciding future direction for our products."

EMC made an announcement at the launch to introduce NetWin, a Windows Storage Server-based NAS gateway for EMC's Storage Area Network (SAN) products. Chuck Hollis, vice president of EMC's Storage Platform Marketing, said, "Windows Storage Server plays to the sweet spot of the market right now. Storage Server gets the job done, simply, without a lot of fanfare. Customers want tools that integrate with environments they already have. They want Windows, not something that looks like Windows." Hollis also said that NetWin complements EMC's existing high-end NAS gateway, Celerra.

Also at the launch, Iomega introduced the first Windows-based NAS device under $1000. Windows Storage Server 2003 has been positioned to compete very effectively with the current low-end NAS leader, Snap Appliance, a company that currently offers Linux-based NAS devices. Muglia said, "We believe Iomega, Dell, and others can compete quite effectively with Snap Appliance on price and beat them on features with Storage Server 2003."

While at the launch, I had the opportunity to conduct several interviews with leading executives in the storage industry. In my next commentary, I'll summarize those interviews and provide insight about the future direction of Windows storage, Windows storage key market opportunities, enterprise storage customers' top concerns, and some speculation about the future impact of Windows storage on the IT market.

Windows Storage Server, Part 1:

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsserver2003/index.cfm?articleid=39263

Windows Storage Server, Part 2:

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsserver2003/index.cfm?articleid=39359

Windows Storage Server, Part 3:

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsserver2003/index.cfm?articleid=39515

Windows Storage Server, Part 4:

http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsserver2003/index.cfm?articleid=39640

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==== 2. News and Views ====

by Keith Furman, [email protected]

IDC: Worldwide Storage Market Shows Decline, North America Shows Growth

IDC's Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Quarterly Tracker shows storage growth in North America but an overall worldwide decline in second quarter 2003. Revenue for worldwide disk storage systems was $4.73 billion for the quarter, which is down 3.9 percent from the same period last year. North American revenue showed a second consecutive quarter of growth, but declines in Asia are helping to lower numbers worldwide. IDC's tracker shows that storage capacity, which continues to outpace revenue, has grown 36 percent on a year-over-year basis. In second quarter 2003, 181.6PBof storage was shipped.

HP led the total disk storage system market in second quarter 2003 with 26.7 percent revenue share. IBM followed with 20.2 percent, then EMC with 12.7 percent. According to the report, IBM and Dell posted strong year-over-year market share standings.

Other second quarter 2003 stats show that HP also led the total external disk storage system market with 21.5 percent revenue, even though total revenue decreased to $3.2 billion, which is a 5 percent decrease over the same time period last year. EMC came in second with 18.8 percent revenue share.

EMC led the total external RAID market and total network storage market. The network storage market includes both Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Open Storage Area Network (SAN). EMC posted a 21 percent revenue share in the external RAID market and a 27.5 percent revenue share in the total network storage market. HP followed closely with 20 percent revenue share in the RAID market and 24.5 percent revenue share in the network storage market. IDC divided revenue market share between the Open SAN and NAS markets. HP led with 29.7 percent revenue share in the Open SAN market, followed by EMC with 25 percent share. In the NAS market, EMC and Network Appliance (NetApp) tied for the number-one position with 37 percent market share each.

http://www.dell.com

http://www.emc.com

http://www.hp.com

http://www.ibm.com

http://www.idc.com

http://www.netapp.com

SGI Aims to Become Storage Giant

Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI) has launched a new storage initiative intended to make the company a bigger player in the storage industry. The initiative includes a suite of new products, expanded services, and a new marketing and branding program. Under the initiative, the company will define its storage technology under a new brand, SGI InfiniteStorage. The company hopes the new brand will heighten customer awareness of its products. Steve Duplessie, an analyst with Enterprise Storage Group, said, "SGI has been a too well kept secret in storage. While the bulk of the industry is merely talking about complex things such as Information Lifecycle Management and Distributed Clustered File Systems, SGI has been delivering this in some of the most diverse, demanding sites for years."

New SGI InfiniteStorage products include SGI's CXFS 3.0, a shared file system available for most major OSs that lets you use shared data concurrently without file replication; SGI Data Migration Facility 2.9, which supports multiple tiers of storage, including online disk, nearline disk, and tape; and new storage hardware solutions, including InfiniteStorage NAS 2000, InfiniteStorage SAN 3000, and InfiniteStorage SAN 2000.

SGI has also announced new alliances and programs targeted at developers. As part of these programs, the company will increase porting and provide technical assistance for storage solutions on both the IRIX and Linux platforms. SGI has alliances with AppIQ, Hitachi, and LSI Logic Storage Systems.

http://www.sgi.com

==== 3. Announcements ====

(from Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

Find Your Next Job at Our IT Career Center

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Are You Ready for Exchange 2003?

With enhanced performance and security and an improved infrastructure, Exchange 2003 is poised for takeoff. Join Windows & .NET Magazine and NetIQ for this free Web seminar, and discover which migration method makes the most sense, the best security and management practices, and much more. Register today!

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==== 4. Event ====

(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine)

New--Mobile & Wireless Road Show!

Learn more about the wireless and mobility solutions that are available today! Register now for this free event!

http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/wireless

==== 5. New and Improved ====

by Carolyn Mader, [email protected]

Provide Disaster Recovery for Your NAS Device NSI Software announced Double-Take for Windows Workgroup NAS Edition, software that provides disaster recovery and high availability for low-end Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. The product also lets large enterprise branch offices with Windows Powered NAS (WPNAS) devices replicate data to a central location for backup. Pricing starts at $2495. Contact NSI Software at 201-656-2121 or 800-775-4674.

http://www.nsisoftware.com

Get Help When You Implement an SRM Solution

Northern Parklife announced its Northern Professional Services (NPS), a program to help you implement Northern's suite of Storage Resource Management (SRM) solutions. The program provides you with as many as 2 days of onsite consultation, training, and support from a Northern storage engineer. For more information, contact Northern at 813-639-0767 or 800-881-4950.

http://www.northern.net

Tell Us About a Hot Product and Get a T-Shirt!

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==== 6. Contact Us ====

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