Only two storage companies on B2 100

The latest issue of Business 2.0 listed their annual ranking of technology businesses with really booming business. Two things stood out on the list:

1. Only two storage companies on the list: Western Digital at #48 and Network Appliance at #98. This was surprising. I expected to see more storage companies considering most market watchers keep harping about the exponential growth in data storage requirements.
2. Sixteen out of 100 companies focused on healthcare market.

#48 Western Digital - Why It's Hot

The No. 2 maker of hard drives (in Dell PCs, TiVo's DVR, and Microsoft Xbox) is gaining market share as rivals Seagate and Maxtor merge.

#98 Network Appliance - Why It's Hot

Increasing demand for data storage boosted server sales by 30 percent in the quarter ending in January, and the share price has since rallied.

From SeaGator - A puzzled vision, "In short term, SeaGator loss will be gain for Western Digital, ...." I am glad to see that I wasn't way off in my analysis of Seagate Maxtor merger.

I don't agree with Business 2.0 reason for why NetApp is hot. In my opinion, credit for NetApp success goes to its sales people who are pounding the pavements like never before. I can't recall any situation recently where NetApp name didn't come up.

I am not surprised to see the booming business being performed by healthcare technology companies. Being personally involved in projects with combined installed storage capacity of 4PB+, in my opinion, healthcare industry is becoming a major consumer of storage. Congratulations to my friends at Merge Healthcare for making the list at #37!