NEW YORK: Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp. said Thursday they agreed to
create interoperable data storage network products and are working to develop
industry standards in a project whose value could exceed $1 billion.
Compaq, the world's No. 1 personal computer maker, and IBM, the world's top
maker of mainframe computers, said in a joint statement their collaboration will
ensure that their storage products work together, which would lead to greater
customer acceptance of open storage networking products. They said they will
also sell significant products from each other's storage portfolios.
The deal was seen as a way for both companies to go head-to-head with data
storage equipment leader EMC Corp.
Each company plans to provide equipment, software and staffing to support
each other's open storage networking customer centers. They said they will share
their knowledge with the industry to help create standards for open storage
networking such as storage area networks (SAN), and making storage networks more
flexible and easier to deploy and manage.
The growth of e-business and the increase in demand for
"anytime-anywhere" products and services has heightened the need for
storage products, the companies said.
IDC Consulting projects that worldwide revenue for disk storage systems and
storage management software will total $53 billion by 2003.
Shares of Compaq rose 1/8 to 25-1/16 and shares of IBM were off 7/8 at
103-1/8 in early trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.