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Site Helping Small Firms
In an effort to provide small companies with a jump-start in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Commerce Department, IT vendors and business executives have unveiled a Web site with links to IT service and equipment suppliers.
NYITAssist.com is part of the ReStart Central initiative to help businesses hurt by the terrorist attacks.
Suppliers listed provide hardware and software products based on Intel architecture and are Microsoft Certified Partners.
A notice on the site states, “More service suppliers will be added, representing a broad range of hardware and software products.”
Ciscos Q1: Mixed News
Ciscos first quarter yielded good news and bad news for the networking equipment company. It beat analyst expectations, but the numbers were worse than last years.
First-quarter earnings were $332 million, or 4 cents per share, excluding charges, compared with earnings of $1.4 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the first quarter of last year. Revenue was down 32 percent from last year, to $4.4 billion.
The good news was that sales increased $100 million from the previous quarter, marking the first sequential growth in a year.
Cisco blamed the numbers on a faltering economy and the effects of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
“If there is one lesson we learned over the past year, its how quickly things can change,” CEO John Chambers said.
Leaders Mull Consortium
Some tape storage leaders will meet at Comdex in Las Vegas this week in hopes of bolstering the aging technology.
Developed by IBM in the late 1950s, the technology is considered by some to be outdated in comparison with newer products.
The businesses represented at Comdex—including IBM, Seagate, Sony Electronics, Storage Technologies and Tandberg Data—want to show that tape storage is still viable. Imation heads the group, which will discuss forming a consortium that could address tape-related issues.