US Equity Research
J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.
May 5, 2004
Computer Hardware
Storage Industry Update: HDS Launches New Products
•
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) presented at the JPMorgan Technology and Telecom
conference yesterday. Marlene Woodworth, EVP and General Manager at HDS,
highlighted the company's strategy and increased focus on services and software.
•
Woodworth introduced the much-anticipated refresh of the modular Thunder product
line. The company also announced enhancements to its HiCommand storage area
management software. The company did not comment on its potential high-end
Lightning refresh.
•
While we believe the Lightning refresh will be an important addition to HDS'
hardware growth strategy, we believe the launch may not come until later in the
September quarter.
•
Nevertheless, yesterday's announcements will increase HDS' position in the modular
storage market and further develop its increasing focus on service- and software
centric solutions.
•
We continue to believe that networked storage growth will accelerate throughout
2004, and HDS' market position suggests it will continue to enjoy a healthy share of
this growth. Nevertheless, we continue to see few signs that EMC's competitive
momentum faces significant near-term threats.
US IT Hardware:
Bill Shope, CFA
(1-212) 622-6607
bill.c.shope@jpmorgan.com
Elizabeth Borbolla
(1-212) 622-6608
elizabeth.borbolla@jpmorgan.com
Mark Moskowitz
(1-415) 315-6704
mark.a.moskowitz@jpmorgan.com
Overview
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) presented at the JPMorgan Technology and Telecom
conference yesterday. Marlene Woodworth, EVP and General Manager at HDS,
highlighted the company's strategic approach to storage hardware and software.
Woodworth introduced the much-anticipated refresh of its modular Thunder product line.
The company also announced enhancements to its HiCommand storage area management
software. Contrary to persistent speculation, however, the company did not refresh its
high-end Lightning storage system. While we believe the Lightning refresh will be an
important addition to HDS' hardware growth strategy, we believe the launch may not
come until later in the September quarter.
Nevertheless, we believe yesterday’s announcements furthered HDS’ strategic shift
toward a more software- and service-centric model. In addition, we believe the company
is increasingly focused on aggressively building its position in the modular segment of
the storage market. The modular segment is an area where HDS has lagged the
competition in the past, but it represents a significant growth opportunity.
Overall, we continue to believe that networked storage growth will accelerate throughout
2004, and HDS’ market position suggests it will continue to enjoy a healthy share of this
growth. In addition, with its increasing focus on modular storage, software and services,
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HDS is quickly expanding its total available market opportunity over the longer-term.
Nevertheless, we continue to see few signs that EMC's competitive momentum faces in
significant near-term threats. In addition, once the new Lightning product is available, we
do not anticipate any material impact to EMC’s growth or profit levels. We continue to
believe that EMC’s strong product refresh cycle and ever-improving cost-structure have
firmly strengthened the company’s long-term competitive advantage.
The New Thunder 9585V: Adding More Speed, Capacity
HDS’ Thunder product line includes modular storage systems that target less missioncritical segments of the enterprise than the company’s Lightning products. In the
marketplace, Thunder tends to compete against EMC’s Clariion products, as well as
modular solutions from the other major hardware vendors. As part of yesterday's
announcement, HDS launched the new Thunder 9585V, which is situated at the high-end
of the company’s modular storage family. HDS noted that its new Logic processor
increases Thunder system speed by 40%, and it is capable of running 240,000 I/Os per
second. In addition, the company has made microcode enhancements to augment I/O
processes. The new Thunder 9585V scales up to 64TB and complements the low-end of a
product line starting at 2TB of capacity. List price range from $100,000 for 1TB to
$300,000 for 10TB, but actual market prices should be even more attractive.
New Application Optimized Storage Solutions
We believe HDS’ latest software rollout reflects the company's increasing push to drive a
more service- and software-centric model. Specifically, HDS refreshed its HiCommand
suite, with a tighter focus on the suite’s application-centric management capabilities.
Advanced features are focused on providing greater management and flexibility across
the SAN environment. The company introduced the next generation of its Services
Manager, as well as Path Provisioning, QoS for Sybase and Tuning Manager 3.3
applications. For example, Services Manager discovers and identifies the path within
each application of the SAN. This leads to new Path Provisioning features that provide
for end-to-end management of hosts, switches and disk systems. Lastly, the Tuning
Manager 3.3 is a management tool for assessing the performance and capacity of
networked storage resources. These products, coupled with HDS’ service solutions,
should allow the company to match the business-specific needs of its customers with
dynamic storage allocation and management.
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most closely corresponds to a hold rating; and our Underweight rating most closely corresponds to a sell rating.
EMC(EMC/$11.27/Overweight)
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