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EMC and HP: war declared

Hewlett Packard says EMC technology old

The full extent of the rift between HP and EMC in the storage market emerged today at a press conference in New York. Describing EMC's technology as an ageing and proprietary technology, Marilyn Edling, general manager of the enterprise systems group at HP, also confirmed it had struck a partnership with Hitachi Data Systems and rolled out products and strategies for "open" storage management in the future. Edling said: "We believe [EMC's] Symmetrix will be an ageing architecture. We believe HP's new product will do it better and we have real doubts whether Symmetrix can achieve the highest level of reliability." HP sold EMC Symmetrix technology and HP accounted for about $1 billion of its $5 billion turnover in the last financial year. Sources close to HP said that the company had approached EMC to OEM its product but was refused permission. Now HP will push an open architecture which will include support for multiple operating systems and platforms, said Edling. Alea Fairchild, managing director of Greiner International, a market research organisation specialising in corporate infrastructure, said: "It's a wise move for HP. Its strength is in systems management. Corporate customers are looking for choices in the storage arena. EMC will have to look at its business model and whether it wants to continue selling direct." That could mean EMC will now be forced to strike deals it has not contemplated before. ®

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