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Jeff Allen, Senior VP, Strategy & Development, BlueArc: Page 8 of 10

Byte and Switch: Back in the heady days of 1998 when BlueArc was founded, the company had no trouble convincing starry-eyed investment bankers and VCs to fund the company – to the tune of over $300 million in total. Back then, evangelists like George Gilder were saying BlueArc would be the next EMC, and BlueArc seemed to fall into the trap of believing this for a while. Has the company stopped drinking its own Kool Aid now, would you say?

Allen: Everyone laughed at EMC for trying to take on IBM, and, once upon a time, Cisco was a tiny little company. You have to believe in what you are doing – otherwise, what's the point? In October 1993 EMC was a $350 million company; now its around $8 billion. It just takes time.

Byte and Switch: What other problems do you hope to rectify at BlueArc?

Allen: Branding is an issue. BlueArc needs to get itself identified with a brand and be more discriptive of who we are.

Byte and Switch: What about you, Jeff? Who are you when you're not wearing your BlueArc hat?