The moribund mainframe market is about to wake up to a flurry of developments in the storage area, with Hitachi Data Systems Inc preparing to announce a Symmetrix-type disk array for mainframes on May 25, and IBM Corp following up a week later with launch of the 3390-9 disk drive, which is now expected to be accompanied by a new 3990-4 controller. The Hitachi array is expected to use quirky 6.5 disk drives and is pitched at a market Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC Corp has made its own with its Symmetrix product, which Gartner Group reckons may be taking as much as 10% of the current mainframe disk market. EMC is said to have plans of its own to bring out a new generation of Symmetrix, and is certainly not daunted by the hot breath of competition – it just announced a two-for-one stock split to be effected via a scrip dividend. Its shares are currently trading at $33 on the New York Stock Exchange, and you don’t split your shares if you think that negative news is about to cause the price to go into a tailspin. The IBM announcement had been expected this month, and the delay is thought to have been occasioned by the need to respond to the Hitachi announcement. The new controller is expected to improve performance but not add functionality; a controller capable of handling arrays is expected later this year. Hesh Wiener of Technology News of America comments that IBM is having to price current drives at less than half of list, and will make a success of the new ones only if it lists them at or below current street prices.
