UNITED STATES


SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


Washington, D.C. 20549


_______________________________


FORM 10-K/A


(Amendment No. 1)


_______________________________


(Mark One)


xANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934


For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2014





OR





oTRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934


For the transition period from             to


Commission file number 1-13317


_______________________________


DOT HILL SYSTEMS CORP.


(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)


_______________________________


Delaware13-3460176(State or other jurisdiction ofincorporation or organization)(I.R.S. EmployerIdentification No.)1351 S. Sunset Street, Longmont, CO80501(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)


(303) 845-3200


(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)


(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)


_______________________________


Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes o No x


Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes o No x


Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes x No  ̈


Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes x No  ̈


Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x


Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):




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Large accelerated fileroAccelerated filerxNon-accelerated filero(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)Smaller reporting companyo





Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ̈ No x


The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold as of June 30, 2014 was $277,450,499.





The registrant had 60,813,245 shares of common stock, $0.001 par value, outstanding as of February 27, 2015.


Documents Incorporated by Reference


Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2015 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.






















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EXPLANATORY NOTE





This Amendment No. 1 on Form 10-K/A ("Amendment No. 1") amends Dot Hill Systems Corp.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 ("Original Form 10-K"), filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 11, 2015 ("Original Filing Date").  The purpose of this Amendment No. 1 is to correct a typographical error in Item 1A. Risk Factors, for the risk entitled "We are dependent on sales to a relatively small number of customers and a disruption in sales to any one of these customers could materially harm our financial results."  The risk factor identified our expectation for net revenue from specific customers for 2015.  We inadvertently identified Customers A and C to represent much greater than 10% of our net revenue and Customer B to represent around 10% of our net revenue for 2015, when the item should have identified Customers A and B to represent much greater than 10% of our net revenue and Customer C to represent around 10% of our net revenue for 2015.  The Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Amendment No. 1 reflects the revised information with the typographical error corrected.





Pursuant to Rule 12b-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, new certifications by our principal executive officer and principal financial officer are filed as exhibits to this Amendment No. 1.





Except as described above, this Amendment No. 1 does not modify or update in any way the financial condition, results of operations, cash flows or other disclosures in, or exhibits to, the Original Form 10-K (other than the updating of the Risk Factors to include the appropriate language, and the Exhibits to include updated Certifications of the Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officers), nor does it reflect events occurring after the filing of the Original Form 10-K.





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Item 1A. Risk Factors


The following sets forth risk factors that may affect our future results. Our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected due to any of the following risks. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and related notes.


We are dependent on sales to a relatively small number of customers and a disruption in sales to any one of these customers could materially harm our financial results.


Our business is highly dependent on a limited number of customers. For example, sales to our largest Server OEM customer, or Customer A, and two large Vertical Markets customers, or Customers B and C, accounted for 68%, 0% and 10%, respectively, of our net revenue for the year ended December 31, 2012, 59%, less than 1% and 13%, respectively, of our net revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013 and 47%, 11% and 8%, respectively, of our net revenue for the year ended December 31, 2014.  We expect Customers A and B to represent much greater than 10% and Customer C to represent around 10% of our net revenue for 2015.  If our relationships with Customers A, B and/or C or certain of our other customers were disrupted or declined significantly, we would lose a substantial portion of our anticipated net revenue and our business could be materially harmed. We cannot guarantee that our relationship with Customers A, B and/or C or our other customers will expand or not otherwise be disrupted.


Going forward, we expect to generate additional revenue from our Vertical Markets partners and from potential new Server OEM customers. However, if we are unable to generate sufficient revenue and gross profit from these sources, our financial results could be harmed.


Factors that could influence our relationship with our significant customers and other potential new customers include:


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|• | our ability to maintain our products at prices that are competitive with those of our competitors;

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|• | our ability to maintain quality levels for our products sufficient to meet the expectations of our customers;

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|• | our ability to produce, ship and deliver a sufficient quantity of our products in a timely manner to meet the needs of our customers;

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|• | our ability to continue to develop and launch new products that our customers feel meet their needs and requirements, with respect to cost, timeliness, features, performance and other factors;

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|• | our ability to provide timely, responsive and accurate customer support to our customers;

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|• | the ability of our customers to effectively deliver, market and increase sales of their own solutions based on our products; and

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|• | our customers' ability to develop and produce competing products to replace our technology.

Product recalls, epidemic failures, post-manufacture repairs of our products, liability claims and associated costs could harm our reputation, divert resources, reduce sales and increase costs and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and our results of operations.


Our products may contain undetected errors, or failures that become epidemic failures (as defined in our customer agreements), which may be discovered after shipment, resulting in a loss of net revenue, an increase in costs to rework or replace failed products, product liability claims, a tarnished reputation, a loss of customers, or a loss or delay in market acceptance of our products, any of which could harm or disrupt our business. Product failures or recalls could be the result of components purchased from our suppliers not meeting the required specifications or containing undetected quality errors and manufacturing defects despite our quality controls, or from our own design deficiencies.


Even if the errors are detected before shipment, such errors still could result in the halting of production, delay of shipments, delay of recovery costs, loss of goodwill, tarnishment of reputation and/or a substantial decrease in net revenue. Our standard warranty provides that if our systems do not function to published specifications, we will repair or replace the defective component or system without charge generally for a period of approximately three years. We generally extend to our customers the warranties provided to us by our suppliers, and accordingly, the majority of our warranty obligations to customers are intended to be covered by corresponding supplier warranties. There can be no assurance that our suppliers will continue to provide such warranties to us in the future or that our warranty obligations to our customers will be covered by corresponding warranties from our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. Significant warranty costs could decrease our gross margin and negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, defects in our products could result in our customers claiming property damages,


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consequential damages, or bodily injury, which could also result in loss of customers and goodwill. Our customers may assert claims that our products have failed to meet agreed-to specifications or that they have sustained injuries from our products, and we may be subject to lawsuits relating to these claims. There is a risk that these claims or liabilities may exceed, or fall outside of the scope of our insurance coverage. Significant claims exceeding our expected warranty provisions could distract management’s attention from operating our business and, if successful, result in material claims against us that might not be covered by our insurance. The last significant quality issue was discovered in 2009, and was due to a problem with one of our power supply vendors.  Refer to Note 6 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this annual report on Form 10-K for further details.


Potential future acquisitions may not be successfully integrated or produce the results we anticipate.


As part of our strategy, we are continuously evaluating opportunities to buy other businesses or technologies that would complement our current products, expand the breadth of our markets, or enhance our technical capabilities. The acquisition and ongoing integration of new businesses into our business may adversely affect our operations or profitability.


Our inability to grow and manage our indirect sales channel may significantly impact our ability to increase net revenue, gross margin and operating income.


We have recently expanded our indirect sales model to access end-user markets primarily through our distributors, VARs and OSPs and are investing significant monetary and human resources in order to grow this indirect sales channel. If we cannot successfully identify, manage, develop, and generate sufficient net revenue through our indirect sales channel, our business could be harmed. In addition, even if we are able to grow our indirect sales channel, managing the interaction of our OEMs’, distributors’, VARs’ and OSPs’ efforts to reach various potential customer segments for our products and services is a complex process. Moreover, since each channel method has distinct risks and gross margins, our failure to implement the most advantageous balance in the delivery model for our products and services could adversely affect our net revenue and gross margin and our profitability.


Turmoil in the global economy, credit markets and the financial services industry may negatively impact our net revenue, access to capital, our customers’ access to capital and ability to pay for their purchases in a timely manner, and our suppliers’ access to capital and ability to provide us with goods and timely delivery, or willingness to provide credit terms to us.


The global economic condition could affect the demand for our products and negatively impact our net revenue and operating profit. We are unable to predict changes in general macroeconomic conditions and when, or if, global IT spending rates will be affected and to what degree they will be impacted. Furthermore, even if IT spending rates increase, we cannot be certain that the market for external storage solutions will be positively impacted. If there are future reductions in either domestic or international IT spending rates, or if IT spending rates do not increase, our net revenue, operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition, the global economic condition could also adversely impact our customers’, and/or their customers’, ability to finance the purchase of storage systems from us, or our suppliers’ ability to provide us with product, any of which may negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.


Our smaller customers may not be as well capitalized as, nor do they have the financial resources of, our larger customers. In addition, sales to all our customers are typically made on credit without collateral. There is a risk that customers will not pay, or that payment may be delayed, because of their liquidity constraints or because they are awaiting payment from their customers, or other factors beyond our control, which could increase our exposure to losses from bad debts or increase accounts receivable, and thus reduce cash.


Our third-party manufacturers rely on other third parties to supply key components of our storage products. Some of these components are available only from one or limited sources in the quantities and quality we require. Should any of the component suppliers cease to operate due to current economic conditions or otherwise, we would have to qualify and locate alternative suppliers. We estimate that replacing key components we currently use in our products with those of another supplier could involve several months of hardware and software modification, which could significantly harm our ability to meet our customers’ orders for our products, damage our customer relationships and result in a loss of sales.


Our manufacturing suppliers provide us with credit terms that have in some cases been negotiated and documented in our manufacturing agreements. The credit terms we receive from these suppliers vary amongst our manufacturing partners but they all provide for adequate credit limits and credit terms. Should any of our manufacturing partners reduce our credit limits or shorten payment terms, due to their inability to purchase credit insurance or due to uncertainty regarding our financial position, our cash resources and working capital could be significantly impacted.


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Our contracts with customers do not include minimum purchase requirements and are not exclusive, and we cannot provide assurance that our relationship with these customers will not be terminated or will generate significant sales.


None of our contracts with our existing customers, including Customers A, B and C, contain minimum purchase commitments and while our contracts typically contain a specified term, our customers may cancel purchase orders at any time, cease making purchases or elect not to renew the applicable contract upon the expiration of the current term. Consequently, our customers generally order only through written purchase orders. Further, we do not expect that future contracts with customers, if any, will include any minimum purchase commitments. Changes in the timing or volume of purchases by our major customers could result in lower net revenue. For example, we cannot be certain that our sales to any of our customers will continue at historical levels or will reach expected levels. In addition, our existing contracts do not require our customers to purchase our products exclusively or on a preferential basis over the products of any of our competitors. Consequently, to the extent they are not sole sourced, our customers may sell the products of our competitors. The decision by any of our customers to cancel purchase orders, cease making purchases or terminate their respective contracts could cause our net revenue to decline substantially, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be significantly harmed.


We sell on a purchase order basis, making us subject to uncertainties and variability in demand by our customers, and our component suppliers may make obsolete certain components we incorporate into our products, either of which could decrease net revenue and adversely affect our operating results.


We sell to our customers on a purchase order basis rather than pursuant to long-term contracts or contracts with minimum purchase requirements. Consequently, our sales are subject to demand variability by our customers. The level and timing of orders placed by our customers vary for a variety of reasons, including seasonal buying by end-users, the introduction of new technologies and general economic conditions.


Customers submitting a purchase order may cancel, reduce or delay their orders. If we are unable to anticipate and respond to the demands of our customers, we may lose customers because we have an inadequate supply of products, or we may have excess inventory which may have to be sold in the open market at a substantial discount, if at all possible, either of which may harm our business, financial position and operating results.


In addition, there are occasions when some of our component suppliers make obsolete certain components that we incorporate into our products. In these situations we may be required to purchase such components on a “last time buy” basis, based on our forecasts of customer demand. If we incorrectly forecast customer demand or if our customers' over- or under-forecast demand, we may have an inadequate supply of products, or we may have excess inventory which may have to be sold in the open market at a substantial discount, if at all possible, either of which may harm our business, financial position and operating results.


Furthermore, we are contractually obligated to purchase excess and obsolete material and finished goods from our contract manufacturer if not consumed within 90 days of our contract manufacturer’s purchase, which could have a material effect on our financial results.


Our sales cycle varies substantially from customer to customer and future net revenue in any period may be lower than our historical net revenue or forecasts.


Our sales are difficult to forecast because the open systems storage market is rapidly evolving and our sales cycle varies substantially from customer to customer. Customer orders for our products fall into two categories: OEM sales and Dot Hill branded sales through the channel. For the OEM business, the length of time between initial contact with a potential customer and the sale of our product may last from 6 to 36 months. This is particularly true during times of economic slowdown and when selling products that require complex installations. For the branded sales business through the channel, sales cycles can range from 30 days to three months or more for individual deals. With Dot Hill's new products in the mid-range segment, sales cycles are expected to increase to a range of 60 days to six months. This can increase the time for product decisions in both the OEM and channel business for customers taking our new products.


Additional factors that may extend our sales cycle, particularly orders for new products, include:


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|• | the amount of time needed for technical evaluations by customers;

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|• | customers’ budget constraints and changes to customers’ budgets during the course of the sales cycle;

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|• | customers’ internal review and testing procedures;

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|• | our engineering work necessary to integrate a storage solution with a customer’s system;

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|• | the complexity of technical challenges that need to be overcome during the development, testing and/or qualification process for new products and/or new customers;

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|• | our ability to meet unique customer specifications and requirements;

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|• | difficulties by our customers in integrating our products and technologies into their own products;

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|• | the timing of our customer's product launches and their sales cycles;

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|• | the ability of our customers to ramp sales of our products including the desire of customer's to purchase legacy products; and

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|• | the total available market for our products within each specific customer.

Our net revenue is difficult for us to predict since it is directly affected by the timing of large orders. We may ship products representing a significant portion of our net revenue for a quarter during the last month of that quarter. In addition, our expense levels are based, in part, on our expectations as to future sales. As a result, if sales levels are below expectations, our operating results may be disproportionately affected. We cannot provide assurance that our sales will not decline in future periods.


The open systems storage market is rapidly changing and we may be unable to keep pace with or properly prepare for the effects of those changes and if we fail to develop and market new software and hardware products that meet customer requirements, our business will be harmed.


The open systems data storage market in which we operate is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product introductions, new interface protocol, evolving industry standards and consolidation among our competitors, suppliers and customers. Customer preferences in this market are difficult to predict and changes in those preferences and the introduction of new products by our competitors or us, or new entrants into the open systems storage market, could render our existing products obsolete or uncompetitive. Our success will depend upon our ability to address the increasingly sophisticated needs of customers, to enhance existing products, and to develop and introduce on a timely basis new competitive products, including new software and hardware, and enhancements to existing software and hardware that keep pace with technological developments and emerging industry standards, such as the market shift to cloud-related infrastructure. If we cannot successfully identify, manage, develop, manufacture or market product enhancements or new products, our business will be harmed. In addition, consolidation among our competitors, suppliers and customers may harm our business by increasing the resources of our competitors, reducing the number of suppliers available to us for our product components and increasing competition for customers by reducing the number of customer-purchasing decisions.


We believe that to remain competitive, we will need to continue to develop new hardware and software products, which will require a significant investment in new product development. Our competitors and new market participants may be developing alternative technologies, which may adversely affect the market acceptance of our products. If alternative technologies and interface protocols are adopted by the industry that we have not incorporated into our products, we may become uncompetitive and not have product offerings for select market segments. Even if our new products are developed on time, we may not be able to manufacture them at competitive prices or in sufficient volumes.


We may not be able to reduce expenses timely in response to any shortfalls in net revenue or gross margin.


We primarily sell to Customers A, B and C and other OEMs and thus do not need to make substantial incremental investments in sales and marketing to generate demand for our products to our customers. Additionally, we outsource substantially all of our manufacturing to very large contract manufacturing partners in Asia. Hence, there is little incremental cost required to increase our production capacity. Furthermore, we have an adopted modular architecture to our storage system products and consequently if our customers do not require substantial customization, we are able to launch products based on existing product platforms for new OEMs or channel partners at modest incremental expenditures.


In the past, we have taken and may have to take further measures to reduce expenses if net revenue or gross margins decline and we experience greater operating losses or do not achieve profitable results. A number of factors could preclude us from successfully bringing variable costs and expenses in line with our net revenue, such as the fact that our variable expense levels are based in part on our expectations as to future sales. This limits our ability to reduce expenses quickly in response to any shortfalls in net revenue or gross margin. Consequently, if net revenue does not generate enough gross margin to cover operating expenses, our operating results may be negatively affected.


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The market for storage products is intensely competitive and subject to substantial pricing pressure that may harm our net revenue, gross margin and operating results.


The storage market is intensely competitive and is characterized by rapidly changing technology. For our AssuredSAN storage hardware products, we compete primarily against independent storage system suppliers, including EMC, Hitachi, Infortrend, Promise, NEC and NetApp as a result of its acquisition of LSI’s Engenio Division in May 2011. We also compete with traditional suppliers of computer systems, including IBM, Oracle, Dell, HP and Nimble, which market storage systems as well as other computer products.


Many of our existing and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater name recognition and substantially greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we do. In addition, some of our competitors have much lower labor costs than we do. As a result, they may have more advanced technology, larger distribution channels, stronger brand names, better customer service, more financial leverage and access to more customers than we do. Other large companies with significant resources could become direct competitors, either through acquiring a competitor or through internal efforts. Additionally, a number of public and privately held companies are currently attempting to enter the storage market, some of which may become significant competitors in the future. In the future, it is conceivable that we could compete with some of the original design manufacturers, one of whom is currently our manufacturing partner, as they develop expertise in chassis design and power and cooling technologies.


We could also lose current or future business to certain of our suppliers or manufacturers, some of which directly and indirectly compete with us. Currently, we leverage our supply and manufacturing relationships to provide substantially all of our products. Our suppliers and manufacturers are very familiar with the specific attributes of our products and may be able to provide our customers with similar products.


We also expect that competition will increase as a result of industry consolidation and the creation of companies with new, innovative product offerings. Current and potential competitors have established or may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase the ability of their products to address the needs of our prospective customers.


Accordingly, it is possible that new competitors, or alliances among competitors, may emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share. Increased competition is likely to result in price reductions, and may reduce operating margins and create a potential loss of market share, any of which could harm our business. We believe that the principal competitive factors affecting the storage systems market include: performance, features, scalability and reliability; price; product breadth; product availability and quality; timeliness of new product introductions; interoperability; and ease of management.


We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully incorporate these factors into our products and compete against current or future competitors or that competitive pressures we face will not harm our business. If we are unable to cost effectively develop and market products to compete with the products of competitors, our business will be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if major customers who are also competitors cease purchasing our products in order to concentrate on sales of their own products, our business will be harmed.


Additional pricing pressures are due, in part, to continuing decreases in component prices, such as those of disks, memory, semiconductors and RAID controllers. Decreases in component prices are typically passed on to customers by storage companies through a continuing decrease in the price of storage hardware systems.


Pricing pressures could also result when we cannot pass increased material costs on to our customers. For example, a significant increase in fuel prices could result in higher steel and freight costs which we may not be able to pass on to our customers.


Pricing pressures also exist from our significant customers that may attempt to change the terms, including pricing, payment terms and post sales obligations with us.  For example, during the fourth quarter of 2013, we increased payment terms to a large OEM customer.  We granted an additional but smaller increase in payment terms to the same OEM customer commencing in the second quarter of 2014.  As our customers are pressured to reduce prices as a result of competitive factors, we may be required to contractually, or otherwise, commit to price reductions for our products prior to determining if we can implement corresponding cost reductions. If we are unable to achieve such cost reductions, or are unable to pass along cost increases to our customers, and have to reduce the pricing of our products, our gross margin may be negatively impacted which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.


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Our inability to lower product costs or changes in the mix of products we sell may significantly impact our gross margin and results of operations.


Our gross margin is determined in large part based on our contract manufacturing costs, our component costs, the timing and magnitude of product cost reductions, and our ability to include RAID controllers and value added features into our products, such as DMS and RealStor, as well as the prices at which we sell our products. The amount of revenue recognized from software and service sales and the relative mix of such sales in comparison to sales of our other products will also impact our gross margin, as the gross margin on sales of software and services is higher than that of our other products. If we are unable to lower production costs to be consistent with our projections or if we experience any decline in selling prices, such as with certain customers with whom we have negotiated periodic price reductions based on specific criteria, our gross margin and results of operations may suffer. Some of the new products we are currently shipping or expect to begin shipping are in the early stages of their life cycle. Our historical experience indicates that gross margin on new products are low initially and increase over time as a result of maturing manufacturing processes, component cost reductions and re-engineering the products to reduce costs. If we fail to achieve these improvements, our gross margin will be negatively impacted and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be significantly harmed.


In addition, we typically plan our production and inventory levels based on internal forecasts of customer demand, which is highly unpredictable and can fluctuate substantially. Such forecasts have not historically demonstrated a high degree of accuracy. From time to time, in response to anticipated long lead times to obtain inventory and materials from our outside suppliers, we may order materials in advance of anticipated customer demand. This advance ordering may result in excess inventory levels or unanticipated inventory write-downs due to expected orders that fail to materialize.


Additional factors which could adversely impact gross margin dollars and gross margin percentage include:


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|• | changes in the mix of products we sell to our customers;

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|• | increased price competition;

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|• | introduction of new products by us or our competitors, including products with price performance advantages;

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|• | our inability to reduce production or component costs;

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|• | entry into new markets or the acquisition of new customers;

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|• | sales discounts and marketing development funds;

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|• | increases in material or labor costs;

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|• | excess inventory, inventory shrinkages and losses and inventory holding charges;

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|• | the timing of purchase price variances resulting from reductions in component costs purchased on our behalf by our contract manufacturers or owned by us in inventory versus the original cost of those components;

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|• | increased warranty costs and costs associated with any potential future product quality and product defect issues;

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|• | our inability to sell our higher performance products, or our software products and our services;

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|• | component shortages which can result in expedite fees, overtime or increased use of air freight; and

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|• | increased freight costs resulting from higher fuel prices, or from the need to expedite shipments of components to our contract manufacturers or finished goods to some of our customers and their hub locations.

Our customers may have very aggressive product launch and ramp schedules and our efforts to accommodate these schedules may divert our management’s attention, cause component shortages and force us to allocate products across many customers, all of which could harm our customer relationships.


Our efforts to accommodate our customers’ aggressive launch and ramp schedules can divert management’s attention from the rest of our business and force us to allocate product volumes across many customers due to component shortages, all of which could harm our relations with customers. In addition, we could incur overtime, expedite charges, and other charges such as shipping products by air as opposed to by ocean, as a result of efforts to meet such schedules. Any of these factors could result in lower net revenue and gross margin as well as increased operating expenses which could have an impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.


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Manufacturing and supplier disruptions could harm our business.


We primarily rely on Foxconn to manufacture our products. In November 2011, we amended our agreement with Foxconn to extend the manufacturing agreement for three years.  In November 2014, we extended the agreement to March 11, 2015, and in March 2015, we extended the agreement to September 1, 2015.  We are currently in negotiations to further extend our contract.  If the agreement is not further extended, pursuant to terms in the existing agreement, we can continue to operate with Foxconn for a period of six months following the expiration of the agreement, as the Company may issue purchase orders and Foxconn may accept purchase orders under the terms and conditions of the existing agreement.  However, if they do not perform their obligations under our agreement, or if we otherwise determine to transition manufacturing of our products to another third party manufacturer, it could take several months to establish and qualify alternative manufacturing for our products and we may not be able to fulfill our customers’ orders in a timely manner. If Foxconn fails to meet their obligations under the agreement, we cannot be certain that we will be able to identify a suitable alternative manufacturing partner that meets the requirements of our customers and one that is cost competitive. Failure to identify a suitable alternative manufacturing partner could impact our customer relationships and our financial condition.


Due to our use of third-party manufacturers, our ability to control the timing of shipments could decrease. Delayed shipment could result in the deferral or cancellation of purchases of our products. Any significant deferral or cancellation of these sales would harm our results of operations in any particular quarter. Net revenue for a period may be lower than predicted if large orders forecasted for that period are delayed or are not realized, which could also impact cash flow or result in a decline in our stock price. To the extent we establish a relationship with an alternative manufacturer for our products, we may be able to partially mitigate potential disruptions to our business. We may also suffer manufacturing disruptions as we ramp up manufacturing processes for newly introduced products, or if our contract manufacturer experiences other disruptions in the manufacturing process, such as disruptions that may be caused by the ongoing move of manufacturing facilities from Longhua, China, to Tianjin, China, there could be delays in the delivery of these products to our customers that adversely affect our results of operations. We also generally extend to our customers the warranties provided to us by our suppliers and, accordingly, the majority of our warranty obligations to customers are covered by supplier warranties. For warranty costs not covered by our suppliers, we reserve for estimated warranty costs in the period the net revenue is recognized. There can be no assurance that our suppliers will continue to provide such warranties to us in the future, or that we have estimated these costs correctly, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.


Any shortage of disk drives, memory or other components could increase our costs or harm our ability to manufacture and deliver our storage products to our customers in a timely manner.


From time to time there is significant market demand for disk drives, semiconductors, memory and other components, and we may experience component shortages, selective supply allocations and increased prices of such components. In such event, we may be required to purchase our components from alternative suppliers, and we cannot be certain that alternative sources of supplies will be available on competitive terms. Even if alternative sources of supply for critical components such as disk drives and memory become available, incorporating substitute components into our products could delay our ability to deliver our products in a timely manner.


Demand for disk drives and memory has at times surpassed supply, forcing drive, memory and component suppliers, including those who supply the components that are integrated into many of our storage products, to manage allocation of their inventory. If such a shortage were prolonged, we may be forced to pay higher prices for disk drives, memory or components or may be unable to purchase sufficient quantities of these components to meet our customers’ demand for our storage products in a timely manner or at all.


We may experience losses in the future, and may have difficulty forecasting future operating results, which could result in revenue and earnings volatility, which could cause our stock price to decline.


For the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013, and 2012, we incurred income (loss) from continuing operations of $8.1 million, $5.5 million, and $(10.4) million, respectively. We expect our business to remain volatile as we are often unable to reliably predict net revenue from our customers. Net revenue from our customers, the mix of products sold to our customers, our ability to introduce new products as planned and our ability to reduce product costs and manage our operating expenses and manufacturing variances will continue to affect our financial results for 2014. Consequently, we cannot provide assurance that we will be profitable in any future period.


Our future operating results and profitability will depend on, and could vary substantially as a result of many factors, including:


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|• | our ability to maintain and enhance relationships with our customers, in particular our OEM customers, as well as our ability to win new business;

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|• | our ability to implement and achieve targeted gross margin and cost reduction objectives;

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|• | our ability to contain operating expenses and manufacturing variances;

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|• | our ability to meet product delivery schedules for our customers which could result in increased air freight, expedite and overtime charges;

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|• | the extent to which we invest in new initiatives such as channel sales and software development;

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|• | our plans to maintain and enhance our engineering, research, development and product testing programs;

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|• | the success of our manufacturing strategy and relationships with our contract manufacturing partners;

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|• | the success of our sales and marketing efforts;

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|• | the amount of field failures resulting in product replacements, recalls or customer penalties;

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|• | the extent and terms of any development, marketing or other arrangements;

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|• | changes in economic, regulatory or competitive conditions, including the current worldwide economic crisis;

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|• | costs of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing intellectual property rights;

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|• | costs of litigating and defending law suits; and

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|• | our ability to capitalize on new customer opportunities resulting from industry consolidation.

Our success depends significantly upon our ability to protect our intellectual property and to avoid infringing the intellectual property of third parties, which has already resulted in costly, time-consuming litigation and could result in the inability to offer certain products.


We rely primarily on patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, nondisclosure agreements and common law to protect our intellectual property. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights. Our efforts to protect our intellectual property from third party discovery and infringement may be insufficient and third parties may independently develop technologies similar to ours, duplicate our products or design around our patents.


Furthermore, third parties may assert infringement claims against us, which would require us to incur substantial license fees, legal fees and other expenses, and distract management from the operations of our business. In addition, we enter into indemnification agreements with third parties in the ordinary course of business that generally require us to reimburse losses suffered by the third party due to various events, such as lawsuits arising from patent or copyright infringement.


We expect that providers of storage products will increasingly be subject to infringement claims as the number of products and competitors increase. We receive, from time to time, letters from third parties suggesting that we may require a license from such third parties to manufacture or sell our products. We evaluate all such communications to assess whether to seek a license from the patent owner. We may be required to purchase licenses that could have a material impact on our business, or, we may not be able to obtain the necessary license from a third party on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Consequently, we could be prohibited from selling and marketing products that incorporate the protected technology or incur substantial costs to redesign our products in a manner to avoid infringement of third party intellectual property rights.


We are currently involved in an ongoing dispute with Crossroads Inc.  It is probable that we will resolve this contractual dispute for royalty payments from 2009 to the current period for a total amount in the range of $1.0 million to $3.4 million.  Refer to Note 12 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this annual report on Form 10-K for further details.


Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain key personnel.


Our performance depends in significant part on our ability to attract and retain talented senior management and other key personnel. Our key personnel include Dana Kammersgard, our Chief Executive Officer and President, and Hanif Jamal, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary. If either of these individuals were to terminate his employment with us, we would be required to locate and hire a suitable replacement. In addition, if any of our key engineering, sales and general and administrative employees were to terminate their employment with us, our business could be harmed. Competition for attracting talented employees in the technology industry can be intense. We may be unable to identify suitable replacements for any employees that we lose. In addition, even if we are successful in locating suitable replacements, the time and cost involved in recruiting, hiring, training and integrating new employees, particularly key employees responsible


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for significant portions of our operations, could harm our business by delaying our production schedule, our research and development efforts, our ability to execute on our business strategy and our client development and marketing efforts.


Many of our customer relationships are based on personal relationships between the customer and our executives or sales representatives. If these representatives terminate their employment with us, we may be forced to expend substantial resources to attempt to retain the customers that the sales representatives serviced. Ultimately, if we were unsuccessful in retaining these customers, our net revenue would decline.


Protective provisions in our charter and bylaws could prevent a takeover which could harm our stockholders.


Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain a number of provisions that could impede a takeover or prevent us from being acquired, including, but not limited to, a classified board of directors, the elimination of our stockholders’ ability to take action by written consent and limitations on the ability of our stockholders to remove a director from office without cause. Our board of directors may issue additional shares of common stock or establish one or more classes or series of preferred stock with such designations, relative voting rights, dividend rates, liquidation and other rights, preferences and limitations as determined by our board of directors without stockholder approval. Each of these charter and bylaw provisions give our board of directors, acting without stockholder approval, the ability to prevent, or render more difficult or costly, the completion of a takeover transaction that our stockholders might view as being in their best interests.


Unanticipated changes in tax laws or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income tax returns could adversely affect our results of operations.


We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Our effective income tax rates have recently been and could in the future be adversely affected by changes in tax laws or interpretations of those tax laws, by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, by discovery of new information in the course of our tax return preparation process, or by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. Our effective income tax rates are also affected by intercompany transactions for licenses, services, funding and other items. Additionally, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities which may result in the assessment of additional income taxes. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations. However, there can be no assurance that the outcomes from these examinations will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.


The exercise of outstanding stock options and warrants may result in dilution to our stockholders.


We have a large number of outstanding stock options and warrants. Dilution of the per share value of our common stock could result from the exercise of outstanding stock options and warrants. When the exercise price of outstanding stock options and warrants is less than the trading price of our common stock, the exercise of such stock options and warrants would have a dilutive effect on our stockholders. The possibility of the issuance of shares of our common stock upon exercise of stock options and warrants could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.


Furthermore, it is also possible that future large customers or suppliers may make our relationship with them contingent on receiving warrants to purchase shares of our common stock. The impact of potentially issuing additional warrants could have a dilutive effect on our stockholders.


Our stock price may be highly volatile and could decline substantially and unexpectedly, which can and has in some cases resulted in litigation.


The market price of our common stock has fluctuated substantially, and there can be no assurance that such volatility will not continue. Several factors could impact our stock price including, but not limited to:


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|• | differences between our actual operating results and the published expectations of analysts;

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|• | quarterly fluctuations in our operating results;

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|• | mergers and acquisitions in the data storage marketplace;

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|• | introduction of new products or changes in product pricing policies by our competitors or us;

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|• | conditions in the markets in which we operate;

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|• | changes in market projections by industry forecasters;

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|• | changes in estimates of our earnings by us or industry analysts;

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|• | overall market conditions for high technology equities;

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|• | rumors or dissemination of false information; and

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|• | general economic and geopolitical conditions.

It is often the case that securities class action litigation is brought against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of its securities. Securities litigation could result in the expenditure of substantial funds, divert management’s attention and resources, harm our reputation in the industry and the securities markets and reduce our profitability.


Future sales of our common stock may hurt our market price.


A significant portion of our common stock is owned by a few institutional stockholders. As a result, a substantial number of shares of our common stock may become available for resale. If these or other of our stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decline. These sales might also make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at times and prices that we deem appropriate.


Our system of internal controls may be inadequate.


We maintain a system of internal controls in order to ensure we are able to collect, process, summarize, and disclose the information required by the Securities and Exchange Commission within the time periods specified. Any system of controls, however well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, and not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the system are met. In addition, the design of any control system is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events. Due to these and other inherent limitations of control systems, there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions, regardless of how remote. Additionally, public companies in the United States are required to review their internal controls under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. If the internal controls put in place by us, including a wide range of manual internal controls, are not adequate or fail to perform as anticipated, errors could occur that would not be detected, which could require us to restate our consolidated financial statements, receive an adverse audit opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls, and/or take other actions that will divert significant financial and managerial resources, as well as be subject to fines and/or other government enforcement actions. Furthermore, the price of our stock could be adversely affected.


Environmental compliance costs could adversely affect our results of operations.


Many of our products are subject to various laws governing chemical substances in products, including those regulating the manufacture and distribution of chemical substances and those restricting the presence of certain substances in electronic products. We could incur substantial costs, or our products could be restricted from entering certain countries, if our products become non-compliant with environmental laws.


We face increasing complexity in our product design and procurement operations as we adjust to new and future requirements relating to the materials composition of our products, including the restrictions on lead and certain other substances that apply to specified electronic products put on the market in the European Union as of July 1, 2006 (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, or RoHS). We design our products to ensure that they comply with these requirements as well as related requirements imposed by our customers. We are also working with our suppliers to provide us with compliant materials, parts and components. If our products do not comply with the European substance restrictions, we could become subject to fines, civil or criminal sanctions, and contract damage claims. In addition, we could be prohibited from shipping non-compliant products into the European Union, and required to recall and replace any products already shipped, if such products were found to be non-compliant, which would disrupt our ability to ship products and result in reduced net revenue, increased obsolete or excess inventories and harm to our business and customer relationships. Various other countries and states in the United States have issued, or are in the process of issuing, other environmental regulations that may impose additional restrictions or obligations and require further changes to our products. These regulations could impose a significant cost of doing business in those countries and states.


The European Union has enacted the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which makes producers of electrical goods financially responsible for specified collection, recycling, treatment and disposal of past and future covered products. Similar legislation has been or may be enacted in other jurisdictions, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and Japan, the cumulative impact of which could be significant.


Some of our products are subject to state, federal and international laws governing protection of the environment, governing proper handling and disposal of materials used to manufacture our products, governing human health and safety, regulating the use of certain chemical substances and requiring disclosure of the use of certain “conflict minerals.” We endeavor to comply with these environmental and other laws, yet compliance with such laws could increase our product design, development, procurement, manufacturing and administration costs, limit our ability to manage excess and obsolete non-compliant inventory, change our sales activities, damage our reputation if we are required to disclose the use of certain "conflict


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minerals" or otherwise impact future financial results of our business. Any violation of these laws can subject us to significant liability, including fines, penalties and possible prohibition of sales of our products into one or more states or countries and result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.


Due to the global nature of our business, risks inherent in our international operations could have a material adverse effect on our business.


Although a substantial portion of our business is located and conducted in the United States, a significant portion of our operations are located outside of the United States. The majority of our products are manufactured outside of the United States, and we have research and development and service centers overseas. Accordingly, our business and our future operating results could be adversely affected by a variety of factors affecting our international operations, some of which are beyond our control, including regulatory, political, or economic conditions in a specific country or region, trade protection measures and other regulatory requirements, government spending patterns, and acts of terrorism and international conflicts. In addition, we may not be able to maintain or increase international market demand for our products.


We face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates as a result of our international operations. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, and they could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flows. Our international sales are denominated in United States Dollars and in foreign currencies. An increase in the value of the United States Dollar relative to foreign currencies could make our products more expensive and therefore, potentially less competitive in foreign markets. Conversely, lowering our price in local currency may result in lower United States-based revenues. A decrease in the value of the United States Dollar relative to foreign currencies could increase operating expenses in foreign markets. Prices for our products are substantially United States Dollar denominated, even when sold to customers that are located outside the United States. Therefore, as a substantial portion of our sales are from countries outside the United States, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, most notably the strengthening of the United States Dollar against other foreign currencies, contribute to variations in sales of products in impacted jurisdictions and could adversely impact demand and revenue growth. In addition, currency variations can adversely affect margins on sales of our products in countries outside the United States.


Additional risks inherent in our international business activities generally include, among others, difficulties in managing international operations and compliance with complex tax regulations in each tax jurisdiction.


In addition, due to the global nature of our business, we are subject to complex legal, tax and regulatory requirements in the United States and the foreign jurisdictions in which we operate and sell our products, including antitrust and anti-competition laws, rules and regulations, and regulations related to data privacy. We are also subject to the potential loss of proprietary information due to piracy, misappropriation or laws that may be less protective of our intellectual property rights than United States laws. Such factors could have an adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial position.


Moreover, in many foreign countries, particularly in those with developing economies, it is common to engage in business practices that are prohibited by our internal policies and procedures, or Unites States laws and regulations applicable to us, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. There can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will comply with these policies, procedures, laws and/or regulations. Any such violation could subject us to fines and other penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.


Our business could be materially and adversely affected as a result of a natural disaster, terrorist acts or other catastrophic events.


We depend on the ability of our personnel, raw materials, equipment and products to move reasonably unimpeded around the world. Any political, military, terrorism, global trade, world health or other issue that hinders this movement or restricts the import or export of materials could lead to significant business disruptions. Furthermore, any strike, economic failure or other material disruption caused by fire, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, power loss, power shortages, environmental disasters, telecommunications or business information systems failures, break-ins and similar events, could also adversely affect our ability to conduct business. If such disruptions result in cancellations of customer orders or contribute to a general decrease in economic activity or corporate spending on information technology, or directly impact our marketing, manufacturing, financial and logistics functions, or impair our ability to meet our customer demands, our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.


Our business is subject to increasingly complex corporate governance, public disclosure, and accounting and tax requirements that have increased both our costs and the risk of noncompliance.


Because our common stock is publicly traded, we are subject to certain rules and regulations of federal, state and financial market exchange entities charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are


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publicly traded. These entities, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the SEC, and NASDAQ have implemented requirements and regulations and continue developing additional regulations and requirements in response to corporate scandals and laws enacted by Congress, most notably the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Our efforts to comply with these regulations have resulted in, and are likely to continue resulting in, increased general and administrative expenses and diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.


On July 21, 2010, the President signed into law the Dodd-Frank Act. Many aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act are subject to rulemaking and will take effect over several years, making it difficult to anticipate the overall financial impact on us. However, as we continue to implement changes in response to this new law and its associated regulations, we expect to incur additional operating costs that could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.


A change in accounting standards or practices and varying interpretations of existing accounting pronouncements, such as the changes to revenue recognition standards, the increased use of fair value measures, additional proposed changes to revenue recognition, lease accounting, financial instruments and other accounting standards, and the potential requirement that United States registrants prepare financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, could have a significant effect on our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business. Implementation of accounting regulations and related interpretations and policies, particularly those related to revenue recognition, could cause us to defer recognition of revenue or recognize lower revenue, which may affect our results of operations.


Because new and modified laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices.


We are subject to risks related to the provision of employee health care benefits and recent health care reform legislation.


In March 2010, comprehensive health care reform legislation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) and the Health Care Education and Affordability Reconciliation Act (HR 4872) was passed and signed into law. Among other things, the health care reform legislation includes guaranteed coverage requirements, eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions and annual and lifetime maximum limits, restricts the extent to which policies can be rescinded and imposes new and significant taxes on health insurers and health care benefits. Provisions of the health care reform legislation become effective at various dates over the next several years. The Department of Health and Human Services, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department have yet to issue necessary enabling regulations and guidance with respect to the health care reform legislation.


Due to the breadth and complexity of the health care reform legislation, the lack of implementing regulations and interpretive guidance, and the phased-in nature of the implementation, it is difficult to predict the overall impact of the health care reform legislation on our business over the coming years. Our results of operations, financial position and cash flows could be materially adversely affected due to this health care reform legislation.  We expect to experience significant increases in health care costs into the foreseeable future.


We are exposed to the credit and non-payment risk of our customers, resellers, and distributors, especially during times of economic uncertainty and tight credit markets, which could result in material losses.


Most of our sales to customers are on an open credit basis. While we monitor individual customer payment capability in granting such open credit arrangements, and seek to limit such open credit to amounts we believe are reasonable, we may experience losses due to a customer’s inability to pay.


In the past, there have been bankruptcies by our customers to whom we had extended open credit, causing us to incur bad debt charges. We may be subject to similar losses in future periods. Any future losses could harm our business and have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. Additionally, to the extent that the recent turmoil in the credit markets makes it more difficult for customers to obtain open credit or financing, those customers’ ability to purchase our products could be adversely impacted, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.


We make significant investments in research and development to improve our technology and develop new technologies, and unsuccessful investments could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.


Over the past several years, our business strategy has been to derive a competitive advantage by moving from being a follower of new technologies to being a leader in the innovation and development of new technologies. This strategy requires


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us to make significant investments in research and development and, in attempting to remain competitive, we may increase our capital expenditures and expenses above our historical run-rate model, including the capitalization of a software project under development discussed more fully in Note 5 to the Consolidated Financial Statements of this annual report on Form 10-K. There can be no assurance that these investments will result in viable technologies or products, or if these investments do result in viable technologies or products, that they will be profitable or accepted by the market. Significant investments in unsuccessful research and development efforts could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, increased investments in technology could cause our cost structure to fall out of alignment with demand for our products, which would have a negative impact on our financial results.


Violation of applicable laws, including labor or environmental laws, and certain other practices by our suppliers could harm our business.


We expect our suppliers to operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including labor and environmental laws, and to otherwise meet our required supplier standards of conduct. While our internal operating guidelines promote ethical business practices, we do not control our suppliers or their labor or environmental practices. The violation of labor, environmental or other laws by any of our suppliers, or divergence of a supplier’s business practices from those generally accepted as ethical in the United States, could harm our business by:


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|• | interrupting or otherwise disrupting the shipment of our product components;

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|• | damaging our reputation;

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|• | forcing us to find alternate component sources;

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|• | reducing demand for our products (for example, through a consumer boycott); or

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|• | exposing us to potential liability for our supplier’s wrongdoings.

We are vulnerable to system failures or attacks, which could harm our business.


We are heavily dependent on our technology infrastructure, among other functions, to operate our factories, sell our products, fulfill orders, manage inventory and bill, collect and make payments. Our systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, power loss, telecommunication failures, computer viruses, computer denial-of-service attacks and other events. Our business is also subject to break-ins, sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism by third parties as well as employees. Despite any precautions we may take, such problems could result in, among other consequences, interruptions in our business, which could harm our reputation and financial condition.


Cybersecurity breaches could expose us to liability, damage our reputation, compromise our ability to conduct business, require us to incur significant costs or otherwise adversely affect our financial results.


We retain sensitive data in our secure data centers and on our networks, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personally identifiable information. We face a number of threats to our data centers and networks from unauthorized access, security breaches and other system disruptions. As with any company with an internet presence, our infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or other disruptive problems. Any such security breach may compromise information stored on our networks and may result in significant data losses or theft of our, our customers’, our business partners’ or our employees’ intellectual property, proprietary business information or personally identifiable information. In addition, we have outsourced a number of our business functions to third party contractors, and any breach of their security systems could adversely affect us.


It is critical to our business strategy that our infrastructure remains secure and is perceived by customers and partners to be secure.  A cybersecurity breach could negatively affect our reputation as a trusted provider of information infrastructure by adversely affecting the market’s perception of the security or reliability of our products or services. In addition, a cyber-attack could result in other negative consequences, including remediation costs, disruption of internal operations, increased cybersecurity protection costs, lost revenues or litigation.





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Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules





The following exhibits are filed as part of this Amendment No. 1:


ExhibitNumberDescription31.1Certification pursuant to 17 CFR 240.13a-14(a) or 17 CFR 240.15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.31.2Certification pursuant to 17 CFR 240.13a-14(a) or 17 CFR 240.15d-14(a), as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.32.1Certification pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.





SIGNATURES


Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.


Dot Hill Systems Corp.Date:March 13, 2015By:/S/ DANA W. KAMMERSGARDDana W. KammersgardChief Executive Officer, President and Director(Principal Executive Officer)Date:March 13, 2015By:/S/ HANIF I. JAMALHanif I. JamalSenior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)





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Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.


NameTitleDate/S/ DANA W. KAMMERSGARDDana W. KammersgardChief Executive Officer, President and Director (Principal Executive Officer)March 13, 2015/S/ HANIF I. JAMALHanif I. JamalChief Financial Officer, and Treasurer (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)March 13, 2015/S/ CHARLES F. CHRIST *Charles F. ChristChairman of the Board of DirectorsMarch 13, 2015/S/ THOMAS H. MARMEN *Thomas H. MarmenDirectorMarch 13, 2015/S/ RICHARD MEJIA JR *Richard Mejia, Jr.DirectorMarch 13, 2015/S/ BARRY A. RUDOLPH *Barry A. RudolphDirectorMarch 13, 2015/S/ RODERICK M. SHERWOOD III *Roderick M. Sherwood IIIDirectorMarch 13, 2015/S/ DEBRA E. TIBEY *Debra E. TibeyDirectorMarch 13, 2015


*Pursuant to Power of Attorney By:/S/ DANA W. KAMMERSGARDDana W. Kammersgard








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