CTR salutes those who made a difference in 2003: when the going got tough, the tough kept going

Computer Technology Review, Dec, 2003

This issue of CTR honors those who made a difference in 2003 by reducing costs, reinventing management, and bringing products to market that they know will pay dividends in 2004.

These are our editors' choices. But we're also opening up the selection process to you, our readers, to vote your choices online. The results will appear in the January edition of CTR.

We know, in the long run, it's your votes as subscribers to CTR that really count.

Visit www.wwpi.com and Vote!

EDITOR'S CHOICE: People and Organizations That Made a Difference in 2003.

The storage industry in 2003 could be divided into those who merely waited for the economy to turn around or for killer apps to appear, and those who faced up to adversity and dealt with it by improving their management skills or bringing new products to the fore, thus preparing their organizations to take a leadership role as the economy brightens in 2004. We call these "People Who Made a Difference." Here are some of them.

CEO LEADERS

Patrick J. Martin, CEO

Distinction: Guided his company to 14 consecutive profitable quarters during the worst technology dry spell in history. Revived respect for StorageTek in the industry using new business controls.

Patrick J. Martin joined StorageTek in July 2000. Under Martin's leadership, StorageTek has grown its profitability despite a declining economy. Previously at Xerox for 23 years, Martin ran the North American Solutions Group, Xerox's largest marketing operation. He was responsible for marketing, product design, customer programs, sales and worldwide manufacturing operations.

www.storagetek.com

Joseph M. Tucci, CEO

Distinction: Moved EMC Corporation to the realization that strategic partnerships and strategic acquisitions were not optional.

No company can stand alone.

Joseph M. Tucci joined EMC in January 2001. He has driven the company to broaden its technology and market leadership beyond high-end storage platforms to the most comprehensive automated networked storage solutions in the industry. Tucci also led EMC into open storage management software. In 2002, he oversaw the introduction of an expanded portfolio of multi-platform software. In 2003, he led EMC's acquisition of LEGATO Systems, Documentum, and Vmware.

www.emc.com

Stephen J. Luzco, CEO

Distinction: Led his company to grow 2003 revenues in an HDD industry that saw revenue decline and prices erode.

Stephen J. Luczo was named president in September 1997, and was elected chief executive officer in July 1998. Additionally, Luczo is chairman of Crystal Decisions, formerly Seagate Software. Previously, Luczo was executive vice president of Corporate Development. Prior to joining Seagate in 1993, Luczo was senior managing director of Finance and co-head of Bear Stearns' Global Technology Group.

www.seagate.com

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATORS

Nexsan Technologies

Distinction: Leading the charge for the newest tiered backup strategy in the marketplace: disk-to-disk-to-tape.

Evangelist: Diamond Lauffin

Diamond Lauffin, senior executive vice president for Nexsan Technologies, Inc., oversees sales and marketing activities.

Before Nexsan, Lauffin ran worldwide sales and technical support of all customer-related operations of Qualstar Corporation. At Qualstar, Lauffin executed a new product introduction providing the vehicle to take the company from $7 million per year in revenues to a run rate of over $60 million.

www.nexsan.com

Cisco Systems

Distinction: Pushing the envelope in SAN technology with the technology of Intelligent Switching

Evangelist: Luca Cafiero

Luca Cafiero is the senior vice president/general manager of the Switching, Voice and the Storage Technologies Group (STG) at Cisco Systems and is responsible for Cisco's product strategy and implementation, along with go-to-market plans for the Storage Networking arena. Prior to Cisco, Cafiero was co-founder and vice president of engineering at Crescendo Communications, Inc. Cisco acquired Crescendo in September 1993. Crescendo developed the first LAN switch, now known as the Cisco Catalyst 1200.

www.cisco.com

XIOtech Corporation

Distinction: Innovation in developing a clustered storage controller solution, allowing the build of virtual storage arrays across local, metro and wide area distances.

Evangelist: Dave Aune

Dave Aune leads all research and development activities within XIOtech. He brings over 25 years of experience in medium and large companies in the storage industry. Before joining XIOtech in August 2001, he held engineering management and executive positions with Seagate, Western Digital, Micropolis and IBM--where he lead technology and product development of RAID systems, video servers and disc drives.

www.xiotech.com

FalconStor Software

Distinction: Even if they shy away from identification as a virtualization company, their code is aggressively sought for integration by many systems companies.

Evangelist: ReiJane Huai

ReiJane Huai joined FalconStor after a distinguished career in software development and management. Before founding FalconStor, he was a senior executive with Computer Associates. Huai joined CA in 1996 with its acquisition of Cheyenne Software, Inc., where he was president and chief executive officer. He was the chief architect of ARCserve, the industry's first storage management solution for the client/server environment.