Content provided in partnership with

Exavio Takes Open Road

Cable World, August 25, 2003

Byline: ANTHONY CRUPI

Democracy may be dying in California, but at least capitalism is still alive and well.

Oh, the Golden State's a bit of a laughingstock these days, a place where the democratic process is about to be subverted by the likes of a crippled pornographer, a dwarfish former child star and that marble-mouthed Austrian dude from Pumping Iron. But as much as the specter of Governor Kindergarten Cop should make all literate Americans instinctively reach for the Maalox, there have been a few stirrings in Silicon Valley that suggest that this part of the world hasn't gone completely mad.

Most Popular Articles in Technology: An overview of continuous data protection; Why all those current ratings?; Many countries now have a mobile penetration rate above 100%, report says; The Tata Group's big telecom gamble: VSNL's recent acquisition of Tyco ...; MEASURING BANK BRANCH EFFICIENCY USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS: MANAGERIAL ...; More »

According to a CBS Marketwatch index, Silicon Valley stocks have soared by 50% this year, a good 20% higher than the national Nasdaq average.

Start-ups are back in vogue as well. The fat $14.3 million VC check deposited in Exavio's coffers this April is a sign that the Valley isn't about to retrogress to its orange grove roots anytime soon.

Exavio's in the digital media storage and networking business, an arena that cable ops need to study more closely, says Gary Law, VP of marketing for the San Jose-based company. "The market for on-demand services is expanding to the point where cable isn't going to be able to keep up with consumer demand," Law says. "The existing infrastructure can't scale to handle all the advanced digital services on offer."

To that end, Exavio introduced two products earlier this month - the ExaVault and the ExaMax - that could help reduce the cost of managing a digital network, while allowing MSOs to offer a full slate of VOD, HD and PVR.

The ExaVault is a media storage subsystem that can be easily integrated in existing network environments. Powered by a Linux operating system, a single rack unit array can scale up to 3 terabytes; a full 7-foot rack can store up to 120 terabytes. For cable ops looking to offer customers a full range of on-demand content, that's like swapping the closet space in a Manhattan studio apartment for that which can be found in Aaron Spelling's house.

The ExaMax is a video pump that will be available later in the year.

Beyond the enormous storage capacity of the ExaVault, Exavio offers operators the open architecture approach touted by fast-track companies such as N2 Broadband.

"The whole idea behind ISA [Time Warner Cable's Interactive Services Architecture, the unification plan implemented by N2] is to offer best of breed," says Law. "Our open standards allow us to run in parallel with them."

While N2 elected not to comment on Exavio specifically, senior director of business development Raj Amin sees promise in the company's approach.

"It's a testament to our own strategy that other companies who embrace open architecture are being funded out there," Amin says. "The proprietary model has to die if cable is to move forward."

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*The real bunker buster will be network-based PVR. Can terabyte servers handle that data load?

Technology Industry

Exavio Takes Open Road

Cable World, August 25, 2003

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Technology

Most Popular Publications in Technology