As the only storage systems vendor with plans to go public this year, Isilon's IPO price will be closely watched by a bunch of other private vendors. 3PAR, BlueArc, Compellent, EqualLogic, and LeftHand Networks are systems vendors who have hinted they will consider IPOs in 2007 if market conditions are favorable.
The market has reacted positively to recent storage IPOs. Riverbed exceeded its target price and CommVault hit the high end of its range. Share prices have since risen for both. Riverbed's IPO price was $9.75 and it opened today at $33.47. CommVault opened today at $19.18, up from its $14.50 IPO price.
At least one Wall Street analyst says Isilon could be a tougher sell for investors, mainly because it needs to compete with the likes of EMC and Network Appliance to achieve significant growth in the clustered storage/NAS market. (See Isilon Snaps Its Clusters.)
"They think they can grow the business rapidly if they raise money," the analyst says of Isilon. "But the problem is that there are too many players in the midrange storage systems and competition is cut-throat."
Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch
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