SGI eyes major revenues from Linux server business

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Saturday, 08 May 2004, 19:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: High-end visual and technical computing player, Silicon Graphics Systems (India), a 100 per cent subsidiary of SGI Inc, projects its high performance computing business to be a key driver for growth in the new financial year, in addition to storage and visualisation businesses, reports Economic Times. SGI India, which has a dual platform strategy in the server space, has drawn a roadmap that is expected to make Linux based servers among its top revenue grossers. With the target industries and corporates slowly making a transition towards embracing Linux based systems, the company expects Linux based server range to earn atleast 75% of its server business revenues. “We are seeing a transition from Unix to Linux and the shift is happening in almost every segment, including the manufacturing segment. “Having established ourselves in the high performance computing server market, we see the business to provide a major chunk of business in the new financial year,” Dr Prasad V Medury, managing director of SGI India told ET. While Linux based servers would earn 75% of the revenues from the server market, the Altix family is expected to contribute to about 50% of the server revenues, he said. The SGI India official also indicated the possibility of forging alliances with Indian OEMs to roll out Linux based products, but did not put any time frame to the proposal.SGI’s offerings in the server space comes in both Unix and Linux flavours — Irix OS on MIPS processors and Linux on Intel’s Itanium 2 processor. With its focus on three core technologies of high performance computing, visualisation and storage, the company’s key markets are the scientific and technical sectors. In addition, SGI’s mission-critical solutions are targeted at verticals such as government and defence, life sciences, manufacturing, energy, and media. While manufacturing and life sciences segments are clear markets, Dr Medury says the oil and gas sector as well as drugs and biopharma sector are emerging markets that will be attractive for its storage and servers businesses. Dr Medury also spelt out plans to drive growth for SGI’s storage and visualisation businesses during the new financial year. SGI’s storage business is being strengthened with new solutions that will be distinct from the market offerings, he said. “We are going to drive our storage business in the new fiscal. While SGI’s cluster file management system will be the differentiating factor from the competition in storage space, the visual area networking will provide distinct advantage for us in visualisation business,” he said