Kingston Technology, better known for its memory products than the storage solutions it offers, is to spin off its storage product division on 1 June, with the name StorCase.

Ajay Lukha, UK director of the division, said that while StorCase will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingston, the decision had been taken for a number of reasons.

The demands of the storage market and its channel were quite different to the memory market, he said, and the formation of the division would mean better branding for the StorCase range of SAN and Raid solutions.

Although he declined to say what the turnover of the storage division was, he did say that revenues were growing at a rate of over 24 per cent a year. The growth rate of memory technology is less than that, he said.

But Lukha denied that the division was being spun off as a separate company to prime it for sale. The firm has no intention of going down that route, he said.

While StorCase will continue with its dedicated chain of distributors round the world, Lukha said that he expected OEM business to account for a considerable amount of revenue.

Customers for its direct attach four channel boxes include the UK Ministry of Defence, the Pentagon, the White House, Nasa, Dreamcast and Luncas, he said. ®