On one side, there are OEM opportunities that result in completely integrated product solutions. On another side, there are high caliber dealers and resellers who can bring together equipment from a number of manufacturers to create a customized solution for each customer. Finally, there is the possibility of direct sales and integration using Pathlight's own resources. To Hood, all of these things are possible and none of them rule out any of the others. In today's market, this type of multi-faceted approach may be the only way for Hood to meet his goals.
Storage technology continues to advance at a staggering pace.
Recent announcements by IBM and other storage companies point toward much bigger hard drives than we have today and much faster access speeds. SCSI, Fibre Channel and SSA drives all require different controllers and interfaces to operate correctly. Different operating systems use different formats for storage. The problem of mixing these technologies together from both hardware and software perspectives is more than most companies can handle already. As each new drive type is introduced, it only gets worse.