Starting a new business in the storage space isn't easy. It's a mature market dominated by huge competitors and low margins. If you want to survive, you'd better have a good story to tell and a nice safe niche in which to park yourself. Copan Systems Inc. hopes to cover both points with its upcoming line of storage products.
The company has created a platform of disk-based hardware and software that it hopes will obviate the need for many current tape-based storage systems. The idea is to create a system with the performance and reliability of disk at the cost --as low as 75 cents per GB -- of tape. Better yet, the Copan system is designed to drop into place with existing backup software solutions, allowing companies to continue using their Veritas or similar products. That fact may also be key to Copan getting into some early accounts, as companies can set up a small trial installation running concurrently with tape before having to make a move.
Copan is now beginning the final test phases, and hopes to ship the product in earnest beginning in April.
While Copan gets started, Mirror Image Internet Inc. is attempting to become more established. One of the survivors of the Content Delivery Network maelstrom of the late '90s, Mirror Image helps companies get their Web content to customers quickly and efficiently, whether they are trying to stream a fashion show, handle millions of customers browsing their site, or simply set up an e-commerce operation.
Now the company has announced its Web Computing Suite, designed to help the folks who manage a Web site's content -- the sales and marketing folks -- do what they need to do without the assistance of IT.
Using Managed Content Targeting from the suite, for instance, a marketing employee could quickly create Web content rules that would create targeted campaigns based on a visitor's location, language, or time of day. With Web Beacon, marketing departments can easily track the effectiveness of campaigns by tracking where visitors click. Suite users can even create detailed rules built around Web content, such as executing a certain application or launching a special page based on a user's search request.
This story, "Cheap storage and special delivery" was originally published by CIO.