History (1999): Bull Storage HQs Now in Phoenix, AZ

French computer manufacturer Bull has decided to transfer the HQs of Storeway, its storage servers business unit, from France to the US, specifically to Phoenix, AZ, where the firm already has an R&D facility for proprietary GCOS OS environments.

Victor L. Walker, headhunted from Storage Technology, where he was VP, engineering manufacturing for the multiplatform systems business group, is now in charge of the business unit, replacing Eric Selosse who was its director, and was based in Les-Clayes-sous-Bois, France.

Walker will be assisted by Scott Hansbury, director of marketing, and formerly in charge of Sun storage software marketing.

According to Walker, the 13-member team currently based in Phoenix will grow rapidly to 45, and will depend heavily on the skills of the 120 people in the French business unit with particular experience in FC and SANs.

He also indicated that Bull wants to capitalize on the $200 million in yearly sales of disk subsystems that put the company in the top 10 WW, and above all on developing new customers, particularly in the NT environment.

He further revealed that in the beginning of 1999, Bull will launch a unique disk/tape subsystem with its own software functionality.

The company will look to its traditional partners (STK, Clariion, EMC, Exabyte, Overland, Veritas, Legato) as well as to some newcomers, starting with Brocade Communications and Crossroad Systems.

The business unit’s objective is to double sales in 1999, as it did last year.

2A1, Bull’s subsidiary in Mennecy, France, will also be part of the new unit, reporting to Walker and offering its expertise in backup and retrieval.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 132 on January 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.