Prior to joining Seagate, John was with Intel for 12 years, where he held a number of positions including Product Marketing Director, Channel Marketing, and Solutions/Business Development.

Q: Seagate has been very successful in the storage market. What are the reasons for that success?

A: Our customers tell us that the number one reason they buy Seagate versus the competition is quality. The simple fact is, when you decide to build a customer storage solution using Seagate hard disk drives, you have made a no-compromise decision to protect your customer's data and you will have the highest level of confidence in your decision. There are lots of other reasons why we think Seagate solutions are great, but head-and-shoulders above the rest is quality.

Q: What challenges are you seeing in the home/small office market?

A: In the home/small office market, our biggest challenge is balancing our message of quality and reliability with the message that it’s important to regularly back up your data in case there is a problem. In our research we have found that the back-up rate in the home/small office environment is only around 15 percent, which was very surprising to us. So while our focus at Seagate will continue to be quality, we need to work with the channel to find a better way to evangelize the importance of backing up data.

Q: What’s hot or emerging in the storage market?

A: Most people know by now that we are transitioning to the SAS interface for our enterprise internal storage products, but it’s worth a reminder: we will be moving a range of our SCSI products to EOL, effective March 2009. The topic that we are most often asked about, however, is flash. Will Seagate enter the flash storage business? Yes—in fact, we have hybrid drives today that utilize flash storage and a next generation of hybrids on our road map that will deliver dramatic performance improvements.

People also want to know when we plan to have solid state drives (SSDs), and at what price? These are key questions that are driving the evolution of the storage market. We think we have a little runway as we prepare our offerings—SSDs today are very expensive. Stay tuned for more on this topic at www.seagate.com.

Q: What would you like the Intel resellers to know about Seagate?

A: We have lots of great tools and resources to help you grow your business that are packaged under the Seagate Partner Program framework. The program registration process is super simple and, as long as you buy from authorized distribution, you will qualify for a number of great benefits including a quarterly cash rebate, a 50% discount on evaluation/seed units, training, and other sales tools and resources.