Dell Adds Fusion-IO As An Option On Servers
Posted on August 18, 2010 |
Last year I wrote this profile of Fusion-io, a startup whose data storage technology so impressed our readers, that they voted it the top up-and-coming innovative company in an online poll that's also known for having Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on board as its chief scientist. Its been interesting to check in on the company's progress since then.
Its latest news came, from Dell Inc., which said it will offer Fusion-io's so-called ioDrives as a build-to-order option on three lines of its servers. This would mark the third company to offer Fusion-io's technology on its servers, the other two being Hewlett-Packard CO. and IBM Corp.
Fusion-io's technology uses flash memory, essentially the same chips used to store music in an MP3 player, to replace the power-hogging hard drives in high performance storage gear. These Storage Area Networks, or SANS, are widely used by large businesses for financial databases. The key problem with hard-drive based SANS is that you have to buy storage for a lot more data than you actually have, which pushes up not only the cost, but the amount of power required to operate it, which adds an extra layer of cost.
I talked with Rick White, Fusion-io's chief marketing officer yesterday and he said it's not uncommon for Fusion-io customers to replace between seven to 10 hard-drive based servers with one one server with an ioDrive added in. That can mean a lot savings.
Dell's relationship with Fusion-io goes back a few years. It was an early investor in the company, and had been offering ioDrive-enabled servers only occasionally when customers requested them. "In terms of numbers it was a niche product for us," said Paul Prince, CTO of Dell's Enterprise Product Goup. Steadily demand for ioDrives grew, so much so that Dell decided to re-cast its relationship with Fusion-io, and make the ioDrive an official build-to-order option on its R710, R810 and m610x servers. "We view this as a natural evolution of the partnership, Prince said.
Aside from investments from Dell, New Enterprise Ventures and Sumitomo Ventures, Fusino-io was also notable last year for a $48 million round of funding announced in April of 2009 from LightSpeed Venture Partners. I said it once and I'll say it again: It's a company worth watching.
Dell Disappoints on 3Q Sales and Profits
Posted on November 19, 2009 |
Dell missed even modest expectations for its fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 30, but CFO Brian Gladden pointed to a sequential rise in fourth-quarter sales helped by the launch of Windows 7.
In its Nov. 19 earnings report, Dell said sales fell 15% to $12.9 billion. Net income fell by 54% to $337 million, or 23 cents per share after excluding certain one-time items. Wall Street analysts had expected Dell to earn 28 cents a share on sales of $13.1 billion. A year ago, Dell reported earnings of $727 million, or 37 cents per share, on $15.2 billion in sales.
Shares of Dell fell by nearly 6% in extended trading after the report. At the end of regular trading Nov. 19, Dell’s stock closed down 19 cents, or 1.2%, at 15.87.
The weakness was spread across nearly all of Dell’s businesses. Sales to large businesses bore the brunt of the declines as information technology departments continue to keep a tight rein on costs. Nearly 80% of Dell’s sales are to businesses and government customers. “We are losing share in the aggregate” because of a heavy reliance on commercial sales, Gladden told reporters during a conference call after the results were announced.
Dell didn’t see much benefit from Microsoft’s launch of its new Windows 7 operating system on Oct. 22, since Dell’s quarter ended eight days later. In the two weeks leading up to the launch, customers put off PC purchases to avoid buying machines with older software running on them, Gladden said. “We built a little backlog as a result, and we’ll ship through that in the fourth quarter,” he said.
Dell’s gross profit margin came in at 17.3%, or 18.3% after excluding one-time expenses related to the closure of a plant in North Carolina. Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros., said he was expecting an 18.6% profit margin in a Nov. 19 research note.
Dell’s consumer sales fell by 10% during the quarter, but Gladden said Dell “walked away from some retail business during the quarter” that wasn’t acceptably profitable in order to preserve margins.
Turn back to BusinessWeek.com later tonight for a full report on Dell’s third quarter, and a look at what’s ahead for the company.
Will Dell’s Smart Phone Get Lost In The Android Crowd?
Posted on November 13, 2009 |
I blogged this morning over at Byte of the Apple about Dell's debut of its long-awaited smart phone over in China, given that the release comes on the heels of Apple's not-so-successful launch of the iPhone in China. I suggested that since the Chinese clearly don't want to pay a lot for their iPhones, maybe Dell can carve out some decent volume if the Mini3 is priced for the mass market. Trouble is, as Jared Newman at PCWorld points out, Dell is being coy about details such as price.
Here's what Dell is saying, beyond the press release, on its Direct2Dell blog.
Will Dell’s Smart Phone Get Lost In The Android Crowd?
Posted on November 13, 2009 |
I blogged this morning over at Byte of the Apple about Dell's debut of its long-awaited smart phone over in China, given that the release comes on the heels of Apple's not-so-successful launch of the iPhone in China. I suggested that since the Chinese clearly don't want to pay a lot for their iPhones, maybe Dell can carve out some decent volume if the Mini3 is priced for the mass market. Trouble is, as Jared Newman at PCWorld points out, Dell is being coy about details such as price.
Here's what Dell is saying, beyond the press release, on its Direct2Dell blog.
Will Dell’s Smart Phone Get Lost In The Android Crowd?
Posted on November 13, 2009 |
I blogged this morning over at Byte of the Apple about Dell's debut of its long-awaited smart phone over in China, given that the release comes on the heels of Apple's not-so-successful launch of the iPhone in China. I suggested that since the Chinese clearly don't want to pay a lot for their iPhones, maybe Dell can carve out some decent volume if the Mini3 is priced for the mass market. Trouble is, as Jared Newman at PCWorld points out, Dell is being coy about details such as price.
Here's what Dell is saying, beyond the press release, on its Direct2Dell blog.
