Xyratex Hits the Mark

6:00 PM -- Xyratek checked in after the market closed today with 1Q07 revenues of $236.4 million, a nice 24 percent bump from the same period last year. Gross margin was 19 percent, down slightly from 19.7 percent in the same period last year.

The vendor also forecast 2Q07 revenue in the range of $203 million to $218 million. (See Xyratex Releases Results.)

CEO Steve Barber gave credit to the Networked Storage Solutions unit, noting in a statement that "the fundamentals of the markets we serve continue to be very good and I believe we continue to improve on our competitive and technology position."

He also cited new business from Data Domain, Leitch Technology, and Overland Storage, among others, that helped the quarter. Another deal is allegedly in the works with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, but neither company's talking about it just yet. (See doclink 120141}.)

Still, some see the RAID controller business as a good one to be in, as demand for SAS starts to build. (See SAS Wave Breaks Big.) That uptick is expected to last several years, poaching on Fibre Channel's reputation for performance, reliability, and native dual-port capability. And recent competitive announcements from other SAS controller vendors like Adaptec, AMCC, Atto, and LSI, make it clear this is a segment of the components market that's on the boil.Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch