Are disk storage systems eating into tape system sales? We've probably had our best tape [sales] year in years. Innovations will continue to drive tape going forward. The key is customers have to save a lot of this data. There's a lot of compliance regulations driving this. There are tons and tons of images.

Are you considering reselling Decru's DataFort encryption appliance technology through your reseller partnership with Network Appliance? We are evaluating this all the time. Our partnership with NetApp is off to a great start. We're having ongoing discussions about how to leverage each other's technology all the time.

How has Microsoft's expansion into storage affected your plans? We're keeping an eye on this space. It's clearly a vendor we need to continue to partner with. It's clear they're more active in the storage community, but it's not really clear where they're going yet. We're certainly not dismissing them. When Microsoft puts their mind to something, they get it done.

What role do acquisitions play in IBM's 2006 storage product road map? We did the NetApp agreement and the Aperi thing. Now it's time to get into the OEM alliance and acquisition space.

Would NetApp be a potential purchase for you? I'm not going to comment on that.