Disk drive shortage cramps EMC style

Low fibre diet

A widespread disk drive shortage continues to cramp EMC's style, with the vendor saying its financial results could be affected because of the lack of hardware.

EMC's CEO Joe Tucci this week warned financial analysts not to expect much near-term drive supply improvement. Companies such as EMC and IBM have complained of insufficient Fibre Channel drives for storage systems and servers and higher than expected prices for the components. The high prices, in particular, could hurt EMC's bottom line.

"Obviously, if I don't get them, there won't be much upside, and we may be short of the high end of the (predicted earnings) range," he told analysts at a Goldman Sachs conference in Phoenix, Reuters reports.

Tucci called out Seagate as one of the suppliers giving EMC trouble. From the sound of it, others are worse.

"We definitely have not gotten all the drives we wanted," Tucci said. "Seagate has the most availability and still can't fill all the demand."

The drive shortage is caused by two main factors. A number of vendors upgraded their product lines at the end of 2004 and have struggled to put out enough of the new kit. In addition, hardware demand has gone up in recent months.

Customers can expect continued delays when ordering servers and storage systems. They'll also likely see the vendors trying to offset the higher drive prices by charging more for high-end kit. ®

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