Still Strong on Storage Software

Despite the fact that 70% of the world’s storage is currently DAS (direct
attached storage), EMC’s push on promoting network storage solutions
continues. "This 70% share of DAS is expected to be taken up by networked
storage, while DAS would constitute 30% of the worldwide market by 2006,"
said EMC Technology Solutions Group Director (South Asia) Ajit Nair.

"The acquisition spree will continue as long as the companies we take over are complementary to our overall long-term strategy" Chris Gahagan, senior VP, EMC

Nair was speaking at EMC’s South Asia press symposium held in Bangalore on
May 21 and 22. Nair pointed out that storage is increasingly becoming a top
priority within the IT strategies of enterprises. "Network storage is of
prime importance followed by automation of storage management, information
lifecycle management," he said. In order to ensure that it is in the thick
of this opportunity in network storage, EMC has adapted a multi-pronged
approach. At the backend, efforts are on to develop and release software
products at a faster pace, the front-end sees a renewed attempt at inducting DAS
users into the network storage fold.

At the APAC symposium being held here, EMC announced enhancements to
PowerPath software. The company launched web-based software for SAN design,
modeling and validation–the EMC SAN Architect. The product is available as a
one-year subscription with an entry-level list price of $ 2400.

Also unveiled was the online capability for the EMC ControlCenter family of
open storage management software as well as EMC AutoAdvice, subscription based
software that provides customers with web-based access to customized analysis of
performance and resource utilization.

On the research and development front, the company invested close to $ 6
billion in software over the last two years. In 1999, 69% of the company’s
revenue came from hardware. In 2002 it is down 58%, while 28% came from software
and the rest from services. EMC aims to further increase its revenue from
software and push the hardware share down to 50%.

Close to 70% of the company’s product developers are software engineers.
EMC acquired nine software companies in the last three years. "The
acquisition spree will continue as long as the companies we take over are
complementary to our overall long-term strategy" EMC senior VP (storage
infrastructure software) Chris Gahagan told Dataquest.

Among EMC’s strategic decisions was the one to take over the intellectual
property of storage software company Sanware. Sanware’s parent company Sanrise
filed for bankruptcy and EMC took over the company’s IP as well as Sanware’s
21 employees based out of Bangalore India. This 21-employee unit was launched as
EMC’s India development center in January 2003. EMC has announced that this
center will now scale to 80 software developers by the end of June 2003.
"We expect headcount to increase by over 200% by the end of Q4 of 2003 and
double the size of the facility," informed Chris Gahagan.

The expanded team will be relocating to a new 9,000 square feet facility in
Bangalore. Close to a third of these professionals will be dedicated to
developing new software and supporting new versions of products like PowerPath
and the ControlCenter family.

Though the development center was launched six months ago, EMC first came to
India in April 2001. It has added 50 customers in nearly two years. With clients
like Tata Teleservices, Airtel, and Orange among others, telecom is its
strongest vertical followed by services and manufacturing. "Admitted that
the Indian storage market is predominantly DAS. But we are constantly educating
customers about the benefits of network storage and the past two years have seen
a significant increase in awareness. The Indian market may have started off
late, but we expect it to mature very fast," says T Srinivasan, managing
director, EMC India.

Manjiri Kalghatgi