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Emulex to acquire Sierra Logic Emulex Corp. said it will acquire ASIC and firmware components maker Sierra Logic Inc. for $180 million in cash, assumed debt and stock. Sierra Logic's embedded bridges and routers enable integration of low-cost Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives into Fibre Channel (FC) systems. Sierra Logic OEMs include Engenio, Hitachi Ltd., Network Appliance Inc., NEC Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., and Xyratex -- its market share in FC-SATA bridging is estimated at 85%, Emulex said.
"We believe that both approaches address the need to utilize low-cost, high-capacity SATA disk drives while leveraging the Fibre Channel infrastructure within enterprise storage systems," according to Mike Smith, vice president of worldwide marketing for Emulex. Analysts said they aren't so sure. "It may not be going well for that spec," said Arun Taneja, founder and analyst of the Taneja Group, a Hopkinton, Mass.-based consulting firm. With other industry standards, five or more big players in the market tend to lead to better adoption of standards, said Taneja, adding that Emulex has only one real competitor in QLogic. "The problem is there are only two players in that market," Taneja said. "And they hate each other. Why should QLogic ever do something that makes Emulex look good?"
OnStor launches midrange clustered NAS "It's really not an SMB or low-end play," said Greg Schulz, analyst with the StorageIO group. "But it does offer some simplicity for the buyer by including disk with the gateway from one vendor."
Quantum shareholders register protest McData sharpens ESCON-FICON migration tools McData Corp., announced an update to the firmware for its Intrepid FICON Converter, a product that attaches ESCON peripherals directly to FICON channels for data migration between systems. Sun Microsystems Inc., also announced the update to the product, which it OEMs as part of a data migration service offering. In a separate announcement, McData reported results for the second quarter of 2006, which showed net revenues of $150.1 million, compared to $168.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2006 and $165.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2005, a net loss of $20.5 million. Sun condenses service offerings Continuing to combine its storage assets into fewer product offerings, Sun Microsystems Inc., said it has integrated StorageTek's TekCare support program into the SunSpectrum support portfolio, now renamed Sun StorageTek Service Plans. The service plans will now consist of the four levels originally named by SunSpectrum -- Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Platinum service level is the equivalent of the former STK Elite plan, which includes around-the-clock phone support every day of the year and a two-hour on-site service level agreement (SLA). The Gold level is a new level that includes eight-hours-per-day phone support seven days a week and a four-hour on-site SLA; the Silver level is the equivalent of the TekCare Select, with 8x5 phone support and a four-hour on-site SLA; and the Bronze level, which includes replacement parts but no tech support, is the equivalent of "TekCare Interactive." "What we do with the storage services was an area StorageTek customers were very much concerned about," said Kitty Kelly, the product marketing director of storage services for Sun. Kelly said that the services staff was "one of the least affected areas" of Sun's recent downsizing. Speaking of downsizing, it was also announced this week that Mark Canepa, one of the first execs to leave Sun post-STK merger, has been appointed CEO of Extreme Networks Inc. Canepa was vice president of the storage division at Sun. He replaces Gordon Stitt, who is chairman of Extreme's board.
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