EMC is considered one of the most successful technology companies in the US. In its ten-year existence, primarily since the beginning of the 90s, it has posted meteoric growth rates. Its products, seemingly standard disks, are harnessed together in such a way to provide huge, extremely reliable storage volume with rapid access. They replace magnetic tapes to serve those information addicts who buy using the ‘pay-and-take’ method, fly the open skies, and spend the rest of their free time surfing the Internet.
EMC does come up with the goods - immediate gratification at a reasonable price on relatively small "floor space". The price of an average disk can range from $30-100,000 or more. The company developed the software, the heart of the system, which currently provides about half the storage volume to large computers the world over.
The company’s business performance is enviable. In 1995, EMC sold disk systems at $1.92 billion, and posted pre-tax profits of $489 million. Since its establishment in 1986, the company’s average annual growth rate has been 45.2% in sales and 37.2% in profits. This year, the company posted a particularly sharp increase in activity, posting $90 million in profits on revenues of $551 million in Q3 alone.
Not many know this dizzying financial success is backed by Israeli technology. The technology was developed through know-how brought to the company by a group of Israeli experts who left Elbit, headed by EMC vice president Moshe Yanai.
The uniqueness of the EMC method is the fact that new hardware systems can be constructed and old ones updated, in accordance with the most advanced improvements in the disk technology, through mere software changes. According to Richard MacDowell, vice president for international sales, the software is a central component in improving the system’s performance, and in the past year, the EMC system’s performance has improved by 57% only through software upgrades.
The improvement was achieved through a dramatic increase in the cache memory, which stores the information the user is expected to request in his next activities. The ability to "prophesy" future demands is the Israeli scientists’ greatest achievement, in developing the cache memory. They reached an unprecedented 95-98% average success rate. The computer, therefore, receives the information it needs, before it even requests it. The software constitutes a large portion of EMC’s investment in development. The company currently employs about 600 engineers and developers, about 80% of whom deal with software.
A significant improvement in a number of critical components of commercial systems, such as shorter billing times, shorter customer response times, and shortened decision and planning processes, can improve the performance of the information system without upgrading the computers themselves, opening bottlenecks created by the process of accessing and processing data.
Due to unique technologies it developed, EMC became the leading global supplier of computer systems for the IBM mainframe environment. According to market data, EMC holds 41% of sales, compared to IBM’s own 35%.
These statistics stem in part from the company’s redployment, waves of which recently reached Israel as well. EMC transferred the support staff from D2 of the Sintec-Formula group, which distributed EMC products until recently. "We have decided to enter the Israeli market with new momentum, in response to the needs of large, central clients, which demanded greater direct involvement of EMC in its products," said Richard MacDowell.
Activity in Israel focuses on IBM’s home environment, but recently, with the completion of the new product line for open environments, the products are no longer limited to "Big Blue" environments. They are actually operating in varied environments like Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, Bull, NCR, and Terradata, as well as other companies with whom EMC collaborates.
EMC’s client base includes some of the world’s leading companies in the fields of financial services, communications, manufacture, travel and tourism, insurance, retail trade, services, government institutions and health services.
According to the company’s estimates, it could reach annual sales in Israel of $6-8 million. Among other things, it has begun selling systems in collaboration with hardware suppliers such as CMS, which integrates EMS products in HP systems. EMC has established independent sales, support and customer service units in Israel, designated to develop as a technical and marketing center for the region, including Eastern Europe, Africa and some Middle east countries such as Jordan and the Gulf states.