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Storage giant EMC creates "rich media" division

The company spawns a new division dedicated to delivering video, photos and audio over the Internet, a move that follows some of its closest competitors.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
EMC has spawned a new division dedicated to delivering video, photos and audio over the Internet, a move that follows some of the company's competitors.

The Hopkinton, Mass.-based company hired Bill Nelson, formerly president of Lucent Technologies' North American operations, to lead the new division, the company said Monday.

The new division consolidates several smaller divisions and increases EMC's attention to the demands of sending information other than text across the Internet.

While EMC's focus has been on large-scale, centralized data storage devices that compete with IBM and Hewlett-Packard products, smaller competitors such as Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems have been selling products that compete in a different part of the storage realm.

Sun and Network Appliance have focused on sending streams of "rich media," such as video and audio, across the Internet, a job that requires different expertise than EMC's. Such services typically require numerous smaller devices as well as single centralized systems. In December, EMC introduced Chameleon, a less expensive storage server more suited to the task.

The new EMC division will incorporate the operations of EMC's media solutions business, which concentrated on rich media needs at broadcasting, telecommunications and cable TV companies, the company said.