Storage News Digest: 22-Jan-03

Enterprise Storage

Interview: Veritas Refreshes Backup Exec

Veritas this week is expected to launch Backup Exec 9.0, a new version of the software makers venerable and profitable backup product. Meanwhile, the company has also been driving its strategy forward with the acquisitions last year of Precise Software and Jareva Technologies to help expand its management play further into the data center. In an interview with IDG News Service, Veritas Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Gary Bloom detailed his vision, which includes Linux and his companys goal to beat out the likes of Sun, HP, and IBM in the virtualization race as a couple of hot areas in 2003.

Read the full story on: InfoWorld

Vitesse Chips Target Low-Cost Serial ATA Drive Arrays

Vitesse Semiconductor has rolled out three chips with which it hopes to establish itself as a leading supplier of serial ATA silicon. Vitesse is one of a growing number of companies developing chips for the new serial ATA standard as a cheaper alternative to SCSI and Fibre Channel. Serial ATA arrays will not only take a chunk out of the low-end market for SCSI disk arrays, but will provide a faster, low-cost alternative to off-line tape archive storage, said Steve Kenniston of market watcher Enterprise Storage Group.

Read the full story on: EE Times

Personal Storage

Aatek Expects to Ship 10 Million Optical Drive Pick-Up Heads This Year

Acute Applied Technologies (Aatek), the first Taiwanese optical pick-up head (PUH) maker, expects to ship 10 million units and post a profit this year after years of losses, according to a company executive. According to Aateks own estimates, worldwide DVD optical drive sales will grow 40% this year to 60 million to 70 million units from 50 million units last year and Aatek will capture around 14-16% of the market this year.

Read the full story on: DigiTimes

Storage Business

Santa Brought a Lot of Disk Drives

Four storage system makers this month have said they would beat fourth-quarter estimates. EMC said sales would surpass analysts expectations by 18%, networking gear maker McDATA said its revenues were running 20% higher than expected, and StorageTek boosted earnings projections by 25% for the quarter. And on Jan. 9, drivemaker Seagate Technology Holdings posted a 60% profits gain, to $198 million, on sales up 6% in its first quarter as a public company. However, while spending in storage is often a leading indicator for the whole tech sector, it doesnt look as if the fourth-quarter bonanza signals a turn. "One good month does not make a trend," says Dave Roberson, president of Hitachi Data Systems Corp.

Read the full story on: BusinessWeek Online