| |
The Digital Storage and Networking sectors of the
Computer Industry
are making headlines. The major
players are continuing to invest in innovation and pump out
new products while making strategic moves
to better adapt in a new global economy. In 2009,
technology
demands originate from businesses and personal use.
Companies such
as Seagate, Western Digital, and Sun continue to provide
solutions to
the real world. |
|
| |
|
More
about Seagate |
 |
Seagate
heads into July 2009 with re-organization underway.
Seagate's plan
includes more than cutting overhead. Seagate continues to
promote
and release new
product lines. Digital storage solutions have been
tailored to
address specific needs of businesses.
Seagate, like many other manufacturers of consumer goods,
is
experiencing challenges related to the economy. In
order to
shore up and re-position the company, Seagate is currently
in the
process of laying off workers. Restructuring is the
other tactic.
In this case, restructuring means that there will be at
least one
promotion. On June 15th, 2009, Seagate announced the
appointment
of Mark Whitby As Vice President, Sales And Marketing
(Europe, Middle
East and Africa). The promotion was from within the
organization.
Mark Whitby previously held the position of executive
director sales and
marketing for the same regions. Does this mean that
Seagate is
focusing on market share outside of the US? Or is it a case
of the right
place at the right time?
New product lines geared to business users have been
part of the focus at Seagate. Storage
product requirements have gone beyond a user's primary
workstation hard
drive. From image files to important work documents,
companies are starting to understand that drive failure can
translate
into lost revenue.
The Solution? According to Seagate,
BlackArmor Family of External Storage
Solutions would be the solution.
Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) announced three additional BlackArmor
® product
offerings: the BlackArmor ® NAS 220 storage server,
the BlackArmor ®
WS
110 external drive workstation and the BlackArmor ®
PS 110 portable
drive. These uniquely styled products were
designed with the
business professional and small home office in mind.
|
Computer Listings Website
|
| |
Featured products on Seagate.com 6/22/2009:
Constellation Hard Drives
Seagate ST9500431SS
Seagate ST9160511NS
Seagate ST9500530NS
|
BlackArmor Family
Seagate ST320005SHA10G-RK
Seagate ST340005SHA10G-RK
Seagate ST360005SHA10G-RK
Seagate ST380005SHA10G-RK
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
2009
has been a
year of transformation for Western
Digital
(WD). WD has been investing in innovation while
simultaneously
shedding assets that may not fit into the company's forward
vision.
Staying the course, Western Digital is working with the
resources in
hand.
Back on March 30th, 2009 Western Digital completed a
significant
acquisition. WD announced that it has completed a $65
million cash
acquisition of SiliconSystems, Inc., Aliso Viejo,
California.
SiliconSystems, Inc. was recognized as being a leading
supplier of
solid-state drives (SSD) for the embedded systems
market.
Currently SSD technology is the preferred technology for
industrial
applications, data streaming applications, embedded
computing, data
center, military, and medical markets. This also
marked the entrance of Western Digital into the Solid Sate
Drive (SSD)
market. The move was strategic and bold. Then
on May 20th,
2009, Western Digital announced that they were going to
sell an asset
(media substrate manufacturing facility in Sarawak,
Malaysia) in order
to realign cost structures. After months of expanding
and
contracting, Western Digital goes into July with plans to
start earning
revenue related to their new SSD product line.
On June 16th, 2009 announced that the SiliconDrive® III SSD product
family started shipping to the world. This new
product family is
based on technology from its March 2009 acquisition of
SiliconSystems.
WD has unleashed three SSD flavors: (1) PATA
interface 2.5-inch
drive (2) SATA interface 2.5-inch drive (3)
SATA interface
1.8-inch drive. The drive capacities range from 30gb to
120gb.
These new products are working their way through the
computer hardware
channels from Manufacturer to Distributors, OEMS,
Integrators,
Resellers, Retailers, and ultimately to end users. |
Sponsor:
Buy AAE
Seagate Drives
Order Online !
|
| |
Featured products on WesternDigital.com 6/27/2009:
SSD SATA 2.5 inch
Western Digital SSD-D0120S
Western Digital SSD-D0090S
Western Digital SSD-D0060S
Western Digital SSD-D0030S
|
SSD Micro SATA 1.8 inch
Western Digital SSD-F0030S
Western Digital SSD-F0060S
|
SSD PATA 2.5 inch
Western Digital SSD-D0030P
Western Digital SSD-D0060P
Western Digital SSD-D0090P
Western Digital SSD-D0120P
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
. |
More
about SATA Drives |
|
Sun
MicroSystems has
been courting and transforming in 2009. At the same
time, the
scales of the server market have been tipped. Sun is
using high-end
hardware offerings to address the changes.
Sun Microsystems has been busy preparing for its official wedding
with Oracle,
in recent months. This landmark deal seems to have helped
move
enterprise level projects and products to gain priority on the Sun
Microsystems
To-Do-List. There has surely been restraint at Sun and Oracle
celebrations, due to another historical change in the server
market. At
the end of April 2009, Cisco announced that they were entering the
server
market. Cisco has enjoyed years as a networking giant.
The
announcement has already brought Cisco to be at odds with long time
partner HP.
The move by Cisco is also keeping Sun on their toes.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
In a recent
article, Trade
Federation predicted "Oracle's business-centric
mindset plus Sun's recent financial challenges could
cause the company
to concentrate on successful profit centers in the time
to come."
On 6/23/2009 Sun announced a new high-end networking
solution:
The InfiniBand Switch 648. The demand for
Networking products
has been growing for years and with an MSRP over 70k,
networking makes
sense. Oracle, an enterprise database software
company, has much
to gain with a product that fits their customers' non-
software needs and
enables quick data transfer across networks.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Networking is so
common in
2009, that many home users even have networking
products. Routers,
switches, and network adapters have become a requirement
for every size
business. The new Sun InfiniBand Switch 648 takes
networking to
its limits. This unit has 648 ports and comes in an
11u
Enclosure/chassis, accommodates up to 9 Line Cards and 9
Fabric Cards,
Chassis includes 3 Fabric Cards, 2 Management Modules, and
4 Power Supplies. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Sun has also been
featuring
high-end storage to compliment their high-end networking
products.
2 Hard Drive Arrays poised to support data intensive
environments are
the J4200 Array and the J4400 Array. The Sun Storage
J4200 Array
can hold up to 48 SAS/SATA II drives. This array
supports SAS
drives that range from 73gb to 450gb and run at 15k
rpm. On the
SATA side, the array supports drives that range from 250gb
to 1TB and
run at 7,200rpm. If that is not enough, companies can
step up to
the Sun Storage J4400 Array that can hold up to 192
SAS/SATA II drives.
In addition to significantly larger quantity of drives that
the array
can hold, the J4400 requires a minimum of a 500gb SATA-II
drives.
The J4400 also supports 400gb 10k rpm SAS drives in
addition to the SAS
drives supported by the J4200. |
|
| |
Featured products on Sun.com 6/27/2009:
Sun Storage
Sun Storage J4400 Array
Sun Storage J4200 Array
|
Sun Networking
Sun InfiniBand Switch 648
Sun 10GbE Adapter X5544A-4
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Change in
the industry is
more apparent than ever. Seagate is promoting from
within and
addressing the needs of business. Western Digital has been
shedding
assets while investing in new innovative technology that
could pay off
in the short term. Sun continues to support the needs of
enterprise
level businesses by leveraging the Oracle umbrella and
offering
product lines that are in high demand. These Major
Computer
Manufacturers are reprioritizing, restructuring, and using
strategic
products to carve out an optimal market share. |
|
| |
|
More
about WD |
| |
|
|
| |
Sources |
|
| |
Written By Philip Dominguez
http://www.Seagate.com June 24th, 2009
Seagate Restructures
To Further Reduce Operating Costs 5/13/2009
Seagate
seagate-appoints-mark-whitby-as-vice-president-sales-and-
marketing-emea
6/15/2009
Seagate
BlackArmor Spec Sheet 6/26/2009
|
|
|
Western
Digital Sells Facility article
written 5/20/2009 and viewed 5/30/2009
WD
Enters the SSD Market through acquisition 3/30/2009 and
viewed 6/26/2009
SiliconDrive® III SSD product family
6/16/2009
|
|
| |
http://www.sun.com/products/networking/datacenter/ds648/index.xml viewed
6/27/2009
Cisco's New server War (HP and Cisco competition) -
article CRN
newsletter 6/22/2009
Sun.com 6/27/2009 |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
This article is sponsored by: |
|
