| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MARCH 15, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
What Is Data Storage? Ever lose sleep over what goes on inside all those big boxes with the blinking lights that store oceans of data? Probably not. It may seem arcane, but the interaction between a corporate computer network and its data storage systems is a backbone of business. Here's how it works: Text, images, or numbers are turned into digital form, and those electronic data streams flow from servers and mainframes to a single storage unit containing dozens of linked disk drives. When a computer needs data back, the storage system locates it, puts it into the proper format, then spits it out. At a large corporation, that can mean trillions of transactions a day. Sounds simple, but it's not. The disk drives and computer chips that go into today's large storage systems are essentially commodities. What sets EMC's EMC technology apart is its software, which coordinates the fast movement of data in and out of its storage units, even as they perform other important tasks. Those include replicating stored data to other EMC machines for backup and ensuring that the most sought-after data are readily accessible. Developing the software has cost EMC more than $1 billion in the past nine years. But it has given the company a big lead over rivals, says Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Gillian Munson. Now, EMC plans to spend another $1 billion on software by 2001. Arcane, maybe. Mundane, not at all. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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