The Data Storage Gold Rush - Who's Left?

The mad scramble going on today in the data storage market may not be the sort of gold rush that gives us classics like "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," but it is a gold rush all the same. Shareholders have seen soaring valuations, companies have seen the competitive chess board morph in front of their eyes and outside observers have had plenty to talk about as bids and rumors roil the markets. 

With the recent announcement of a deal between Dell (Nasdaq:DELL) and Compellent (NYSE:CML), it is fair to wonder whether the land grab is close to running its course. There is no doubt that storage is going to be a key component of corporate IT as long as there is IT, but it looks like a combination of scarcity and a need to digest prior deals may eventually calm the market.

The Big Boys
There is no question that there are plenty of options when it comes to corporate-level data storage. EMC (NYSE:EMC) is still a major player in the field, along with competitors like NetApp (Nasdaq:NTAP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Dell  and Hitachi (NYSE:HIT). Within this wide array of vendors is an equally wide array of approaches and technologies, ranging from EMC's efforts to meet almost any conceivable storage need to NetApp's much more focused approach.


The link below leads to the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/The-Data-Storage-Gold-Rush---Whos-Left-EMC-NTAP-CVLT-CA-IBM-SYMC-ORCL1215.aspx