SnapServer Sales increased 53% over the prior quarter - Overland Storage

Overland Storage, Inc. reported second quarter results for its fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2010.

Eric Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer of Overland Storage, said: "With the support of our channel partners worldwide, we are executing on our plan to increase sales of our higher margin branded products and services. Branded product sales grew 21.7% sequentially and total branded revenue is now 92.3% of total sales, up significantly from the prior quarter," said Kelly. "Additionally I am happy to report that our revenue, gross margin and operating expenses for the first half of FY 2011 were all within the guidance that we previously announced. In addition to achieving these financial objectives, we introduced a new SAN product line and a new NAS product into the marketplace as planned."

Net Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 was $17.9 million, an increase of 2% from the prior quarter and a decrease of 12.2% from the second fiscal quarter of 2010. The net loss for the quarter was $0.9 million, or $0.07 per share, compared to a net loss of $6.5 million, or $0.59 per share, in the prior quarter and net loss of $2.6 million, or $0.47 per share, in the second quarter of 2010. Gross margins for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 were 31.1%, a significant increase from 23.6% the prior quarter, and an increase from the 28.5% in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Operating expenses were $9.2 million, an improvement of $0.7 million from $9.9 million the prior quarter, including $1 million in non-cash stock compensation expenses in each quarter. We ended the second quarter of fiscal 2011 with cash and cash equivalents were $6.8 million, an increase of $2.5 million from $4.3 million at the end of the prior quarter.

Highlights:

• Total branded products revenue, excluding service, increased 21.7% sequentially and 3.2% over the same period a year ago.
• The SnapServer and SnapSAN series of disk based products increased 53% over the prior quarter and 95% in the same quarter in the prior year.
• NEO SERIES tape products increased 10.7% from the prior quarter.
• Gross Margins for the quarter were 31.1%, up 750 basis points from the first quarter and up 250 basis points from the same quarter in the prior year.
• The Company generated $3.0 million in other income from the sale of a minority interest in proceeds the company may receive in connection with the current IP litigation.
• The Company launched the SnapSAN S1000, a new entry in the midrange SAN marketplace. The S1000 has a modular, scalable, dual controller architecture and was designed to anchor our SnapSAN portfolio and expand our total available market.

Overland's top tech guy: Great things ahead

Barrall talks tape

We had the chance to talk to Geoff Barrall, the founder of BlueArc and Data Robotics, about his work at Overland Storage, where he is charge of product engineering.

He came into Overland after having been his own boss for two decades but "realised that the challenges are very similar and found my feet". CEO Eric Kelly and sales and marketing VP Jillian Mansolf are great to work with, and "I have the right team in place (including some of my old friends from BlueArc and Data Robotics) and everybody is working really well together".

He couldn't discuss the product roadmap in any specific terms at all, but he did say "it's the most exciting I've ever had", and discussed it in a little more detail.

"On the SNAP Server side of the business it's public knowledge that we acquired the Maxiscale scale-out file system which we're excited to integrate and deliver.

Tape market large and growing

"As for tape it's really exciting for me to be working in that area. My Phd is in Cybernetics and so the fact that I'm actually responsible for delivering robotics for a living now ties right back to that. The tape market is large and growing but Overland has work to do to regain its former share.

"Fortunately very little innovation has been applied to this market for some time (by any vendor) and so it's a great area to be creative and I have one of the few teams remaining in the world with the skills to create the necessary technology."

There's a surprise. Tape product engineering developments haven't been switched off. HP, IBM, Quantum, SpectraLogic and other tape product suppliers can look forward to some interesting competition.

"We also introduced two SAN products," said Barrall. "These seem to be doing well and it's exciting to have a product portfolio to work with that spans NAS, SAN, Archive Disk and Tape. Lots of room for synergy there.

Should people be concerned out the length of time it's taking to produce products from his engineering department? "Anybody who knows engineering will know that it take around 18 months to deliver something new and around 24 for something great. I'm working on that kind of time frame and am very excited about 2011 and beyond."

Todo Backup 2.0 by Easeus for Windows - All-in-one backup and DR software

EASEUS Software announces the availability of its backup and recovery solutions for Windows workstations and servers. The new versions are mainly for business use including Workstation Edition, Server Edition and Technician Edition, respectively, for specific users. Each provides an all-in-one backup and disaster recovery solution to protect workstations and servers while ensuring business continuity.

The new EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0 is designed to backup and protect Windows Workstation, Desktops and Servers. In this new version, a redesigned graphical user interface and advanced features are introduced to simplify the backup and recovery process.

It helps backup the operating system, applications and all important files in minutes while protecting business from computer failure or potential disasters and minimizing operational downtime.

The new features in EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0:

• Fast backup and recovery of system and important files;
• File incremental backup save time and storage space;
• Schedule backup and simply create and automate regular backups;
• Selective file backup and recovery without recovering entire image;
• Snapshot restore crashed system in seconds;
• Universal restore to dissimilar hardware;
• Email notification to monitor success or failure;
• Multiple storage places like external hard drive, CD/DVD and even FTP servers;
• WinPE and USB bootable disk builder;
• Support Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 and Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7;
• Password protection.

"EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0 is an extremely easy to use and straightforward backup utility with a host of new features. If you are looking for a good and powerful backup solution for your Windows operating system, Todo Backup is the best one for you," said one editor in the media.