There are simply not enough people prepared to pay the premium required for fault-tolerant computers, so Stratus Computer Inc is laying plans to broaden its product offerings beyond its Continuous Processing Systems, moving into the market for high availability systems that can go down once in a while. It also says it plans to put more emphasis on software and services, and, taking advantage of a strong cash position, is on the look-out for software companies to acquire. Stratus is taking pains to present these strategic moves as an expansion of its business, not a restructuring, Dow Jones & Co reports. The biggest market for fault-tolerant systems has been the financial community, but that market went ex-growth some time ago, and the other main growth area is seen as telecommunications, but here, too, there are fears that phone companies may begin to duplicate or triplicate cheaper commodity computer systems.
