To take on EMC, California rival sets lower prices

EMC Corp.'s hold on the midrange market for data storage is about to be challenged by a California company backed by $150 million from Oracle Corp. chief executive Larry Ellison.

Pillar Data Systems, of San Jose, said its storage line to be launched today will use inexpensive components to deliver systems as fast and reliable as EMC's data storage gear, but at lower prices.

Pillar's chief executive, Michael Workman, a former IBM Corp. storage executive, stressed that he didn't expect to topple EMC from its leading role in the storage market.

''I respect EMC. Great company, great people," Workman said. ''We're trying to address customers more than attack our competitors."

But one customer who is already using the Pillar equipment said it's distinctly better than his older EMC hardware.

''The EMC system has been totally thrown away," said Chris Butler, chief technology officer for I/Pro Corp. in San Francisco.

Pillar uses ''serial ATA" hard drives, the same kind of inexpensive drives found in most home computers, instead of the more costly ''Fibre Channel" drives usually found in high-end corporate storage devices.

Serial ATA drives are slower, but Pillar has developed software that moves the most heavily used files to the outer edge of each disk drive in the system. Data stored on the edges of a drive can be read much faster than data stored closer to the hub. The company claims this lets the serial ATA drive read the most important data as quickly as a Fibre Channel drive. Meanwhile, less frequently used files, such as data archives, are stored closer to the hub.

''The throughput is great," said Christopher Hill, associate director of information technology at Thacher, Proffitt & Wood, a New York law firm that's been testing the Pillar system. ''It compares favorably to our EMC system."

Jack Scott, an industry analyst with Evaluator Group in Greenwood Village, Colo., was impressed with the Pillar system, and with the deep pockets of the firm's key investor.

''They've got a much bigger line of credit than most small companies have," Scott said. ''They've got more staying power."

But he added that merely introducing a new storage technology was not enough.

''They have a lot of work to do," Scott said. ''They've got a product. They don't have a distribution channel."

EMC's greatest strength, he said, is its long experience in selling storage to the world's major businesses. He questioned whether Pillar could ever match that strength as an independent company, and predicted that a larger firm would acquire it.

EMC spokeswoman Anne Pace noted that many companies have entered the storage business, only to fade away.

''We take all potential competitors seriously, of course," she said, ''but we believe Pillar has a pretty long road ahead of it."

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.