Arun
Taneja forms Analyst/Consultancy Group
Hopkinton, MA - May 27, 2003 - Arun Taneja
is pleased to announce the formation of the Taneja Group - a Technology
Analyst/Consultancy group focused on storage and storage-centric server
technologies. The group is formed to provide analyst and consulting services
to IT shops in mid-size and large enterprises, technology vendors and VCs
targeting storage and server technology areas.
The group is founded by
Arun Taneja, a seasoned marketing and technology veteran with 25 years of
experience in developing and marketing computer technologies. He was most
recently a Senior Analyst at the
Enterprise Storage Group
where he specialized in many of the technologies mentioned above. He has held a
variety of executive management positions in marketing and engineering with
companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Data General, Vixel and Andataco. He
writes extensively about the storage industry and speaks frequently at the
industry tradeshows.
The Taneja Group is founded on the basis that there is a need in the
industry for an analyst firm that conducts an in-depth analysis of companies,
technologies and the market invests resources and time in understanding the real
needs of end users delivers the information in a responsible fashion, without
exaggeration and hype so that its clients can make intelligent decisions,
grounded in reality uses experienced industry professionals that have "been
there, done that" rather than theoretical analysts, and has demonstrated
integrity in dealings over the years, understands the needs of the vendors,
VCs, end users and institutional investors alike is willing to bet its
reputation on the work it performs ...Taneja Group profile
Editor's
comments:- over 20,000 readers / year visit our
storage market research &
analyst directory page, so there's a clear need for analysts who can cut
through the fog surrounding new technologies and where they fit in, or don't. |
|
Is Your Company Below the
Visibility Horizon?
Editor:- May
27, 2003 - a new article on MarketingViews defines a worrying problem
for web marketers - being just below the threshold of visibility to your target
market. Companies with this problem don't survive long. |
|
Federal IT Security
Spending to Reach $6 Billion
Reston,
VA - May 22, 2003 - Federal government spending on information technology
security products and services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of
7% from $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2003 to nearly $6 billion in fiscal year
2008 according to a report released by INPUT.
"In the two years following the terrorist attacks on September
11, 2001, the federal IT security market experienced spending increases of over
200%. After this explosive growth, we are now seeing budget increases return to
more normal levels," says Payton Smith, Manager of Federal Market Analysis
at INPUT. Smith adds, "However, federal agencies still face substantial
challenges implementing infrastructure protection and security plans, so
reliance on the vendor community for support in this area will remain high."
According to the report, strong oversight from Congress and the U.S.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are the primary drivers of agency
investments in IT security products and services.
"Annual
security reviews by OMB and Congress are showing some progress among federal
agencies, but they still reveal significant short-comings in terms of risk
assessment, security planning and certification," says Smith. The report
also states that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is serving as a
coordination point for government-wide security initiatives. The DHS Directorate
for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection is the new home for
several of the most important security organizations in government. Smith adds,
"Despite the Department of Homeland Security's new leadership position in
government-wide information security activities, responsibility for securing
specific agency systems will still reside squarely on the agencies themselves."
...INPUT profile |
|
Online Sales Soared 48
Percent In 2002, According To Latest Shop.org/Forrester Study
Washington,
DC - May 15, 2003 - In a mostly disappointing year for the retail industry,
there appears to be one bright spot: online retail. According to The State
of Retailing Online 6.0, a Shop.org annual study conducted by Forrester
Research of more than 130 retailers, online retail sales soared to $76
billion in 2002, up 48% over the prior year. Shop.org is the online retailing
division of the National Retail Federation (NRF).
In addition to growth in revenue, the latest figures from the study
show that US online retailers are continuing their march to profitability. Last
year, 70% of retailers reported positive operating margins, compared with 56% in
2001. Collectively, retailers broke even in sales last year, up from a loss of
6% in 2001.
Last year, 32% of computer hardware and software was sold online. ...Forrester Research
profile |
|
PressReleaseNetwork.com
Launches Global PR Agencies Directory
JERSEY CITY, NJ -
May 14, 2003 - Press Release Network, the global news distribution and
online media monitoring service have launched a global PR Agencies directory
on the internet. The directory contains comprehensive information on over
2,000 PR agencies in 66 countries. The directory can be ordered online for US$
299. Subsequent annual updates are free. Visitors to the Press Release Network
site can perform 'Agency search' operation on sample information of 1,600
agencies.
According to Sharad Agarwal, CEO of PRN, "The PR Agencies
directory is a useful resource for organizations that use the reach of the
internet to expand their business globally. This directory is the first of its
kind and has been compiled in association with several PR related associations
and publications worldwide."
...Press Release Network
See
also:- Marketing
Agencies which are Proven to be Effective at High Tech PR |
|
Gartner Says Worldwide
Fibre Channel SAN Market Grew 3% in 2002
STAMFORD,
Conn. - May 14, 2003 - Worldwide Fibre Channel SAN components hardware
revenue totaled $1.47 billion in 2002, a 3% increase from 2001 hardware revenue
of $1.43 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.
"While
the Fibre Channel industry experienced slower growth than in previous years, any
increase is a show of strength in what was another difficult year for storage
products and companies," said James Opfer, research vice president for
Gartner's storage research group. "In 2002, the market continued to
experience extraordinary market consolidation as the four leading vendors
increased their revenue share to 85% of the market total."
Brocade continued to maintain the No. 1 position in Fibre Channel
component hardware revenue with its 2002 market share of 34% up from 32% in
2001. Emulex reclaimed the No. 2 position with a 23% revenue increase. QLogic
showed the strongest growth in 2002 as its revenue increased 24%.
The
worldwide Fibre Channel switching products hardware market revenue reached $847
million in 2002, up 6% from 2001 as the market made a transition to 2 Gbps
products. Brocade remained the dominant supplier, accounting for 59% of revenue.
McDATA represented 30% of revenue while QLogic remained the No. 3 vendor with 5%
of the market Worldwide Fibre Channel HBAs totaled $570 million in 2002, an
increase of 1% from 2001. Emulex was the clear leader with 48% of the market,
followed by QLogic with 32% market share. Hewlett-Packard, supplying products
for internal use, was the No. 3 vendor. ...Gartner profile
Editor's
comments:- the SAN market did well to get any revenue increase at all during a
year when many analysts
were saying that it would be overtaken soon by NAS. Vendors like Spectra
Logic have
recently
demonstrated that for backup applications iSCSI offers nearly the same end
to end performance as fibre-channel SAN but at much lower cost. As second
generation iSCSI products start appearing on the shores this summer the NAS surf
will pick up speed. Fibre-channel will continue to be used, but SAN
installations will increasingly be viewed as islands surrounded by a sea of NAS,
and it's unlikely that the SAN market will ever again see more than single
digit growth.
See also:-
SAN,
NAS,
iSCSI |
|
CopywriterWorld.com Helps
You Find Copywriters for Your Next Brochure etc
Editor:- May 7, 2003
-
CopywriterWorld.com was established last week as a web site which helps
marketers get quotes for specific copywriting projects. They currently have
254 registered writers, waiting to bid on projects. The stated business model
is that writers pay the intermediary site 10% for business which they get, and
project initiators pay a $5 fee when they select a writer. An extract from
their launch press release is below...
Hiring writers who know their
stuff is never easy. Many don't know where to start looking. Even then, how do
you make a judgement on their quality. And you'll never know if you've been
overcharged. Or if they can meet THEIR promises on meeting your deadlines.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could have writers bid for your project?
Writers with good track records, experience, and professionalism? That's what
people at CopywriterWorld thought so too.
According its founder Victor
Voo, "The idea for CopywriterWorld came from our own frustrations when
looking for a writer for our corporate website. We took a long hard look at the
problem and figured that many others had the same problems as we had. We think
it's a win-win situation for everyone... the project owners and the writers."
Here, you will never have to pay more than market rates for crisp,
quality writing. It's not surprising to get a dozen bids for your project
posting. And you can expect top-notch quality. CopywriterWorld's rating system
keeps writers on their toes. None can afford to get a bad rating from a client
if they want to be in this for the long term. There are no membership fees, no
monthly fees, no posting fees at CopywriterWorld, making it very accessible for
small business owners and project managers....CopywriterWorld.com |
|
Making Web Advertisements
Work - new article on Alertbox
May 5, 2003 - a new article
publsihed today on Alertbox gives practical advice about how to make web
advertising work. "Web users are highly goal-driven, and ads that
interfere with their goals will be ignored. To succeed, ads must work with the
medium, as well as with the user's aims and mindset." ...Useit.com/alertbox
Editor's
comments:- for many years, the author of these Alertbox articles, Jakob Nielsen,
has been saying that web advertising doesn't work. Then in an
April 2003 article
he conceded that "new" plain text classified ads probably do work.
We've been selling the "new" style of classified ads since 1996 and
they work very well for our advertisers. It's nice to see that even web
marketing gurus can admit they were wrong. |
|
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MarketingViews | |
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Other news on this page
Arun
Taneja forms Analyst/Consultancy Group
Is Your Company Below the
Visibility Horizon?
Federal IT Security Spending to Reach $6 Billion
Online
Sales Soared 48% in 2002, According to Latest Shop.org/Forrester Study
PressReleaseNetwork.com Launches Global PR Agencies Directory
Gartner
Says Worldwide Fibre Channel SAN Market Grew 3% in 2002
CopywriterWorld.com
Helps You Find Copywriters for Your Next Brochure etc
Making Web
Advertisements Work - new article on Alertbox
earlier news (archive) |
|
 |
Advertising
on
STORAGEsearch |
| When
Cheaperbyte's sales manager said "Accelerate your storage sales",
he knew just the right way to do it. | | |
|
|
|
Nibble:- No silver bullets for slaying storage demons
Whenever
I used to watch the first series of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, I was impressed and intrigued by the impressive array of
weapons which the Scoobies used to take out of Giles' armory. Not just sharpened
stakes, but axes, knives, crossbows, swords and crucifixes too - an impressive
range of symbolic medieval ironmongery. Not so often silver bullets because
silver bullets kill werewolves, and these were rarely a problem in Sunnydale.
Yet despite being well stocked with slayer cutlery, and extensive
training, sometimes our heroes had to use tactics other than heart staking or
decapitation to save the world once more from the armageddon.
I
imagine that Giles, who had an extensive library on demons, could be a difficult
customer when approached by a wannabe demon weapons sales person. The
conversation might go something like this...
"The Demon Slayer 4
is the latest and greatest weapon made by Demon Death Corp. Incorporating the
latest technology and feedback from out focus groups it kills all demons and
other nasty things at close and medium range. It's clockwork powered, requires
no batteries, is portable and can be operated by someone no stronger than a
teenage girl. The product is kept continuously up to date by downloading the
latest adjustment settings from our web site."
"Give me a
demonstration" says Giles. The salesperson from Demon Death Corp complies
by dialing up a holographic demon which is quickly despatched into electron
dust.
"Tell you what" says Giles, not very convinced. "If
you can survive one night on patrol in Sunnydale, armed with nothing more than
the Demon Slayer 4, I'll buy three of them."
The salesperson is no
fool. The Demon Slayer 4 is much improved compared to the Mark 3 model, but
given a choice between losing your commission or losing your soul, it's better
to find more gullible customers elsewhere.
And this is where I get
back to the storage market...
Nobody is going to offer your
organization a cast iron guarantee that they can keep your data available no
matter what. And I mean a guarantee which includes reimbursing you for loss of
profits and other consequential losses which occur when their product fails to
work, even when the storage demon is one which was not specified in the
contract. Fire flood, and having a haunted server are not valid getout clauses.
Here are just a few examples of what can go wrong.
Your
disk to disk backup system
replicates your data in real-time across all your sites... What could go
wrong? - Due to a programming error by your storage administrator who was
testing a new hardware upgrade the live data and backed up data got deleted by
accident. (We're going to run an
article
soon about what happened to one company when this happened to their Sun server
in real life. None of their software or hardware suppliers were able to help
them.)
Your
web based backup system
has been so reliable and convenient in recent years that you decided not to
upgrade your tape libraries. Instead the web backup has become your primary form
of data protection. What could go wrong? - On Monday morning you need to
recover data on a server in one of your factories which was stolen at the
weekend. But you keep getting error messages. Eventually you ring the online
backup company. Or try too. Later that day after a lot of phone calls and web
research you learn that they went bust last week. The press was warning about
it, but you never saw those headlines. Their equipment has already been boxed up
and bought by a reputable broker who diligently wiped the disks and tapes
clean.
Your accounting records are archived according to the latest
standards on optical media which is guaranteed to last 30 years and could even
last longer. The network attached
jukebox is so
convenient that you decided to stop paying for the storage and testing of the
reel to reel tape backups which the new system replaced... What could go
wrong? - A fire in the nearby stationery cupboard spread to your computer
room. The servers are being replaced tomorrow, and you've got an offsite daily
tape backup for your live data, but your archived optical data is black sticky
globules.
Your tape
backup, set up by your predecessor works like a dream. Because your company
has downsized to less than half the size it used to be, the original system
still has plenty of capacity. Every day for the last few years you've been
getting reassuring reports which confirm that the backups, have been going OK.
Every day you do an incremental backup (which take 45 minutes) which you take
home for safe keeping, and every Friday you do a full backup and rotate the
tapes to make sure that you always have at least two sets of workable backups.
What could go wrong? - The marketing director calls. Your new company
catalog got trashed by a virus. Not to worry you've got the backup tape from
yesterday. That's when you discover that the backup software parameters were set
up long before your company bought the tools and workstations it uses to compile
the catalog, and the data has never actually been backed up at all. The only
reason you didn't discover this before was because the users were making
unofficial backups of their individual work and they didn't bother you if minor
things went wrong. Now something major has gone wrong they've contacted you. But
you don't have a solution.
The lesson from this story is the
following...
Like the Demon Slayer 4, all backup technologies are
merely simple tools designed to solve one problem well. Sometimes they can be
adapted to solve more than one problem. But when you meet the backup storage
demon one dark night on patrol be sure you've got more than just a pointy stick
and a clove of garlic in your pocket because you can't be sure that the demon's
going to be a vampire. | |
