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January 1, 2003

Companies to Watch 2003

Intelligence | Integration | Infrastructure | Collaborative Commerce

Infrastructure

by Michelle M. Young

No longer relegated to "just the cost of doing business," infrastructure is increasingly an integral part of organizations' strategic vision as tough economic times force organizations to demand value from their existing resources. And these companies are listening.

BMC Software Inc.

Founded: 1980
HQ: Houston

BMC's acquisition of Remedy from Peregrine Systems may transform the company from a tools and utilities vendor to an enterprise management solutions leader. The combined product offerings offer customers both increased employee productivity and customer satisfaction, while improving IT performance and lowering operational costs.

Borland Software Corp.

Founded: 1983
HQ: Scotts Valley, Calif.

Not just for solitary developers anymore, Borland - by adding acquisitions Starbase Corp. and BoldSoft MDE Aktiebolag to the fold - is realizing its goal of becoming the "Switzerland" of enterprise development tools. And another revenue growing quarter certainly only helps its chances.

Computer Associates International Inc.

Founded: 1976
HQ: Islandia, N.Y.

After taking some public relations damage in 2002 (not to mention facing serious legal scrutiny into its finances), the market leader for software that manages corporate networks is out to prove that it understands what enterprises want. A rebranding of its complex product line and more flexible licensing policies are steps in the right direction.

Dell Computer Corp.

Founded: 1984
HQ: Austin, Texas

Increasing acceptance of Dell-EMC entry-level storage systems, recent successes in high-performance computing clusters, and industry analyst figures showing that more U.S. customers purchase industry-standard servers from Dell than any other company prove that competitors can't afford to label Dell as a PC company any longer.

Embarcadero Technologies Inc.

Founded: 1993
HQ: San Francisco

With more than 90 of the Fortune 100 using its products to design, develop, and administer their mission-critical database applications, Embarcadero Technologies continues to win raves. Its new ER/Studio 5.5 beat out rivals in a usability study of data modeling and design tools.

Hewlett-Packard Co.

Founded: 1939
HQ: Palo Alto, Calif.

Now that the merger with Compaq has made it the third-largest global technology services provider behind IBM and EDS, HP has no time for a honeymoon: It's moving quickly to identify and eliminate overlapping platforms and storage products, and demonstrating to skeptics how its new roadmaps and branding strategy bring value to intelligent enterprises.

Hitachi Data Systems Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd.

Founded: 1989
HQ: Santa Clara, Calif.

Sluggish IT spending and the performance gap between EMC Corp.'s current late-cycle Symmetrix vs. the latest high-end Lightning system 9980V have helped Hitachi gain ground on EMC. Will Hitachi's acquisition of Comstock Systems Corp. and partnerships with Sun Microsystems and HP help it administer a coupe-de-grace by 2004?

Mercury Interactive Corp.

Founded: 1989
HQ: Sunnyvale, Calif.

Not content with its load testing market leadership, Mercury Interactive unveiled its Business Technology Optimization initiative and Optane suite as part of its ambitious strategy to optimize the quality of companies' applications and infrastructure, eliminate technology waste, and better align IT with the business.

Network Appliance Inc.

Founded: 1992
HQ: Sunnyvale, Calif.

No longer No. 1 in network attached storage (NAS), Network Appliance is climbing back by unleashing the FAS900 series - touted as the industry's first standards-based unified storage engine that can handle networked storage in SAN or NAS mode - and plans to deliver SAS BI tools on Netapp storage filers. And Network Appliance is getting serious about sales: It's aggressively revamping its much maligned channel program and actively wooing distributors, a new move for the company.

Novell Inc.

Founded: 1979
HQ: Provo, Utah

Acquiring SilverStream Software supplied the missing components Novell needs to become a player in application development. It outlined an ambitious strategy for 2003 involving Web services development and secure ID management - including Novell exteNd 4.0 - with a new focus on business decision makers.

Rational Software Corp.

Founded: 1981
HQ: Cupertino, Calif.

The new S&P 500 member's acquisition of NeuVis Inc. adds another piece to its life cycle development tool offerings with NeuArchitect's ability to generate new, model-driven code from legacy applications - critical for companies wanting to make the most of their existing resources.

Unisys Corp.

Founded: 1873
HQ: Blue Bell, Pa.

Unisys' Wintel-based ES7000 is quickly gaining ground in the competition with Sun Microsystems and other Unix system vendors for the high-end server business. Unisys also plans to promote the ES7000s for supercomputing applications via a partnership with Cornell Theory Center.