Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014

Over the course of the last few months many investors have been holding on to Linc Energy Ltd (LNCGY.PK) in the hopes that the company's potentially massive shale oil discovery in the Arckaringa Basin of Australia would pay off. The following will explore the potential upsides and downsides of owning a position in Linc Energy despite the prevalent difficulties and costs international natural gas companies are presently facing.

At the beginning of this year, Linc Energy reported a discovery of what was predicted to be anywhere from 3.5-233 billion barrels of recoverable oil under 16 million acres of land owned by the company. Though the costs of recovery may be rather costly, due to the expenses behind hydraulic fracking (the necessary drilling process to obtain shale oil) the amount of recoverable oil still has a minimum value of $359 billion and maximum value, which is estimated to be upwards of $20 trillion. It is expected that the initial costs involved in enabling production are around $300 million. That being said, the costs to begin production are irrelevant when juxtaposed with the potential gains in the region. If the reports analyzing the discovery of the shale oil reserves are confirmed through drilling, then the gains will be enormous with relation to the company's stock value. In addition, the confirmation of such a discovery would put Australia on par with Saudi Arabia with regards to oil production in the global marketplace. However there are certain issues that may hamper the company's progress in the future that should be considered.

Top 10 High Tech Companies For 2015: Lenovo Group Ltd (LNVGF.PK)

Lenovo Group Limited is principally engaged in investment holding. It is a personal technology company serving customers in more than 160 countries. The Company is a personal computer (PC) vendor. The Company develops, manufactures and markets technology products and services. Its product lines include Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. It offers a range of commercial desktops and notebooks to businesses of all sizes that feature cutting-edge technology, customer-centric innovation and productivity features. It operates in three segments: China, Emerging Markets (excluding China) and Mature Markets. Lenovo has research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina, the United States. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Investometrica]

  x86: With regards to the specific x86 server business, it seems that IBM is considering the possibility of fully divesting it. According to Morgan Stanley, the server business generated about $4.9 billion of the company's $15.4 billion in server sales last year. This enormous volume is due to the fact that IBM may be producing the overall market's highest volumes, at the lowest profit level; which suggests this segment is doomed. Finally, IBM has a history of aggressive shifts to areas with better growth prospects and margins. For example, the company agreed to sell off the PC business to Lenovo (LNVGF.PK) at a moment where the PC still seemed attractive.

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: Diebold Inc (DBD)

Diebold, Incorporated, incorporated in August 1876, is engaged in providing integrated self-service delivery and security systems and services to the financial, commercial, government and retail markets. Sales of systems and equipment are made directly to customers by the Company�� sales personnel, manufacturers��representatives and distributors globally. The sales and support organizations work closely with customers and their consultants to analyze and fulfill the customers��needs. The Company has two lines of business: Self-Service Solutions and Security Solutions. The Company�� segments are consisted of two sales channels: Diebold North America (DNA) and Diebold International (DI). In September 2012, it acquired GAS Tecnologia (GAS).

The DNA segment sells and services financial and retail systems in the United States and Canada. The DI segment sells and services financial and retail systems over the remainder of the globe through wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and independent distributors in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan and Korea.

Self-Service Solutions

The Company offers an integrated line of self-service technologies and services, including comprehensive automated teller machine (ATM) outsourcing, ATM security, deposit and payment terminals and software. The Company is a global supplier of ATMs and related services. The Company offers a range of self-service solutions. Self-service products include a range of ATMs and teller automation, including deposit automation technology, such as check-cashing machines, bulk cash recyclers and bulk check deposit. The Company offers software solutions consisting of multiple applications, which process events and transactions. These solutions are delivered on the appropriate platform. From analysis and consulting to monitoring and repair, the Company provides value and support to its customers every step of the way. ! Services include installation and ongoing maintenance of its products, OpteView remote services, branch transformation and distribution channel consulting. Outsourced and managed services include remote monitoring, troubleshooting for self-service customers, transaction processing, currency management, maintenance services and full support through person to person or online communication.

Security Solutions

The Company provides its customers with the technological advances to protect their assets. The Company provides physical and electronic security systems, as well as facility transaction products, which integrate security, software and assisted-service transactions, providing total security systems solutions to financial, retail, commercial and government markets. The Company provides security solutions and facility products, including in-store bank branches, pneumatic tube systems for drive-up lanes, vaults, safes, depositories, bullet-resistive items and undercounter equipment. The Company provides a range of electronic security products, including digital surveillance, access control systems, biometric technologies, alarms and remote monitoring and diagnostics. The Company provides security monitoring solutions, including fire, managed access control, energy management, remote video management and storage, as well as logical security.

Integrated Solutions

The Company provides end-to-end outsourcing solutions with a single point of contact for customer�� self-service channel. Its solution includes hardware, software, services or a combination of all three components. The Company provides value to its customers by offering a range of integrated services and support. The Company�� service organization provides analysis and planning of new systems, systems integration, architectural engineering, consulting and project management, which encompass all facets of a financial self-service implementation. The Company also provides design, products, ser! vice, ins! tallation, project management and monitoring of electronic security products to financial, government, retail and commercial customers.

Election Systems

The Company is a provider of voting equipment and related products and services in Brazil. The Company provides elections equipment, networking, tabulation and diagnostic software development, training, support and maintenance.

The Company competes with NCR Corporation, Wincor-Nixdorf, Grg Equipment Co., Nautilus Hyosung, Itautec and Perto.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Asit Sharma]

  Diebold (NYSE: DBD  ) , the transaction and security firm that most of us know for its ATM technology, owns a magnificent, shareholder-friendly streak, having increased its dividend annually for the last 60 years. That's a current record among U.S. equities. The company's dividend also yields an attractive 3.9%.

• [By Mark Morelli]

  How will the potential disruption impact business and affect investors? Should the executives at ATM manufacturers such as Diebold (NYSE: DBD  ) �be worried? Credit�and debit card processors like MasterCard (NYSE: MA  ) and Visa (NYSE: V  ) �are already benefiting from the trend to a cashless society. Could things get even better?

• [By Insider Monkey]

  Security and services company Diebold (DBD) is simply a dividend beast. It has raised dividends in 60 consecutive years and currently offers a yield of 3.8%. Over the past three months, two insiders, CEO Andreas Mattes and VP John Kristoff, have bought Diebold stock. Mattes currently owns about $824K worth of the stock while Kristoff's position is a bit smaller, and in the entire year of 2013, Board members Rajesh Soin and Henry Wallace have also initiated purchases here.

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: Western Digital Corp (WDC)

Western Digital Corporation (WD) is a provider of solutions for the collection, storage, management, protection and use of digital content, including audio and video. Its principal products are hard drives, which are devices that use one or more rotating magnetic disks (magnetic media) to store and allow access to data. Its hard drives are used in desktop and notebook computers, corporate and cloud computing data centers, home entertainment equipment and stand-alone consumer storage devices. In addition to hard drives, its other products include solid-state drives and home entertainment and networking products. The Company operates as the parent company of its hard drive business, Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Effective March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Viviti Technologies Ltd. In May 2012, the Company completed the divestiture of certain 3.5-inch hard drive assets to Toshiba Corporation. As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba Storage Device (Thailand) Company Limited (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives.

The Company offers a line of storage devices. Its hard drives include 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, capacities ranging from 80 gigabytes to three terabytes, nominal rotation speeds up to 10,000 revolutions per minute, and interfaces, such as Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS). In addition, the Company offers a family of hard drives specifically designed to consume less power than standard drives, utilizing its WD GreenPower Technology. Its solid-state drives include 2.5-inch and Compact Flash form factors, capacities ranging from 1 gigabyte to 256 gigabytes, and interfaces, such as SATA and PATA.

Client Compute Storage Products

Client compute consists of hard drives and solid-state drives for desktop and mobile personal computers (PC��). During the fiscal year ended July 1, 2011 (fiscal 2011), it shipped 151 million hard drive clie! nt compute unit. Its client compute storage products include WD Caviar, WD Scorpio and WD Silicon Edge. WD Caviar family of hard drives is designed for use in desktop PCs. WD Scorpio family of hard drives is designed for use in mobile PCs. WD Silicon Edge family of solid-state drives is designed for both read-intensive client/consumer applications and write-intensive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications.

Client Non-Compute Storage Products

Client non-compute consists of branded products and consumer electronics products. Its hard drive client non-compute unit shipments were 46 million, during fiscal 2011.

Branded Products

Branded products consists of hard drives embedded into WD-branded external storage appliances with capacities ranging from 250 gigabytes to 8 terabytes and using interfaces, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, USB 3.0, external SATA, FireWire and Ethernet network connections. Certain branded products models include software that assists customers with back up, remote access and management of digital content. Branded products also include its home entertainment and networking products. Its branded products include My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances include WD ShareSpace, WD TV and WD Livewire.

My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances are designed to add external capacity to desktops and digital video recorders (DVRs), allow for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders, and connect to networks to simplify storage for consumers. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances are designed for external portability weighing less than one-half of a pound and allow for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders. WD ShareSpace is a network-attached storage system designed for home office or small office applications. WD TV m! edia play! ers connect to a user�� television or home theater system and play digital movies, music and photos from an integrated hard drive, network hard drives, any of its WD-branded external hard drives, other USB mass storage devices or content services accessed over the Internet. WD Livewire, which enables consumers to use their existing electrical outlets to extend Internet connections throughout the home.

Consumer Electronics Products

WD AV family of hard drives is designed for use in products, such as DVRs and audio and video applications. WD AV drives deliver the characteristics CE manufacturers.

Enterprise Storage Products

Enterprise consists of hard drives for traditional enterprise and nearline storage applications, as well as solid-state drives for embedded applications. Its hard drive enterprise unit shipments were 10 million, for fiscal 2011. Its enterprise storage products include WD S25 hard drive, WD VelociRaptor, WD RE and WD SiliconDrive. WD S25 hard drive is designed for mission-critical enterprise server and storage applications, such as data centers and data arrays. WD VelociRaptor hard drive is designed for enterprise server and storage applications. This hard drive is also used in the high-end desktop PC market for applications including gaming, servers and advanced computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. WD RE family of hard drives is designed for nearline storage enterprise applications. WD SiliconDrive family of solid-state drives features fast read/write speeds in high capacities and is designed for embedded system OEM applications.

The Company competes with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Intel Corporation, Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seagate Technology, STEC, Inc. and Toshiba Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  4. Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC  ) , P/E of 7.5
  Western Digital designs and manufactures data storage devices. The storage devices are used in PCs, Web servers, and network storage devices.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Amy Sancetta/AP A consumer tech giant made the biggest acquisition in its history, and a popular discount airline paid the price for not discounting the way it said it was. Here's a rundown of the week's best and worst in the business world. Southwest Airlines (LUV) -- Loser The "bags fly free" airline loves to jab at its competitors for slapping extra fees on everything from luggage to legroom to hide their true total fares, but Southwest's advertised rates sometimes lack integrity too. Southwest messed up late last year when it promoted $59 fares for certain popular routes that it never ultimately offered at that price. The unfortunate episode came to a head this week when Southwest was fined $200,000 for deceptive marketing. It was a rare misstep for Southwest, and now it's paying the price in more ways than one. Apple (AAPL) -- Winner After weeks of speculation, Apple finally announced that it would pay $3 billion for Beats Electronics and Beats Music. Some have questioned the deal. Is Apple paying too much for what will be the largest acquisition -- by far -- in its history? Is the consumer tech giant desperate? Is this the end of organic innovation at Apple? Settle down. This purchase is a brilliant move. Beats Electronics is the leading marketer of premium headphones, and this gives Apple a high-end accessory category that it hasn't excelled at on its own. It also gives Apple a neat way to play the popularity of rival platforms since headphones, naturally, are operating system agnostic. Beats Music also gives Apple a foothold in the booming on-demand streaming category. It may have just 250,000 paying subscribers, but this is a market where Apple had struggled to obtain music label licenses. Apple only had the discovery-based iTunes Radio where listeners can't stream the exact song or playlist they crave. Beats Music solves that dilemma. Western Digital (WDC) -- Loser There's a surprising service missing from Western Digital's new set-top med

• [By Tim Brugger]

  HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC  ) , has entered into an agreement whereby HGST will acquire a 100% ownership stake in sTec (NASDAQ: STEC  ) in an all-cash transaction valued at $340 million, equal to $6.85 a share, the companies announced today.

• [By Tim Beyers]

  Solid-state disk drives�may be the future, but they haven't taken over just yet. This week,�Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC  ) introduced a 1.5 terabyte portable magnetic drive for laptops and a variety of other formats, a move that could make it one of the best stocks to buy now.

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: Violin Memory Inc (VMEM)

Violin Memory, Inc., incorporated on March 9, 2005, is pioneering a new class of flash-based storage systems that are designed to bring storage performance in-line with high-speed applications, servers and networks. The Company�� Flash Memory Arrays are specifically designed at each level of the system architecture starting with memory and optimized through the array to leverage the inherent capabilities of flash memory and meet the sustained requirements of business-critical applications, virtualized environments and Big Data solutions in enterprise data centers. The Company�� Velocity Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), Flash Memory Cards leverage its persistent memory-based architecture in servers and are optimized for applications that require continuous access to quantities of low latency persistent memory located directly in servers.

The Company�� storage systems are based on a four-layer hardware architecture, which is integrated with its Violin Memory Operating System (vMOS), software stack to optimize the management of flash memory at each level of its system architecture. The Company�� Velocity PCIe Flash Memory Cards leverage its expertise in persistent memory-based storage and controller design, as well as its vMOS software stack, to offer a differentiated architecture in a deployable PCIe form factor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Steve Symington]

  What: Shares of Violin Memory, (NYSE: VMEM  ) plunged 48% Friday after the high-speed data storage specialist came up well short of analysts' estimates with its first quarterly report as a public company.

• [By Michael Calia]

  Violin Memory Inc.(VMEM) named Kevin A. DeNuccio as chief executive after firing prior CEO Don Basile in December because of the company’s poor performance. The flash-storage company posted disappointing third-quarter results and a sagging stock price.

• [By John Udovich]

  On Monday, small cap storage stock Violin Memory Inc (NYSE: VMEM) surged 21.56% after booting out its CEO in the wake of disappointing earnings and IPO, meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock along with the performance of potential or better known storage peers like large caps SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) plus small cap Dot Hill Systems Corp (NASDAQ: HILL).

• [By Mani]

  Violin Memory, Inc. (NYSE: VMEM) is well positioned to take advantage of the strong secular growth of flash in the enterprise. The combination of its proprietary hardware, a growing software portfolio and resulting industry-leading price/performance should translate into robust growth over a multi-year time frame.

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: George Risk Industries Inc (RSKIA)

George Risk Industries, Inc. (GRI), incorporated on February 21, 1961, is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of computer keyboards, push button switches, burglar alarm components and systems, pool alarms, thermostats, EZ Duct wire covers and water sensors. GRI is a diversified manufacturer of electronic components, consisting of the security industries variety of door and window contact switches, environmental products, proximity switches and custom keyboards. The Company operates in two segments: security alarm products and security alarm products GRI�� security burglar alarm products comprise approximately 84% of net revenues and are sold through distributors and alarm dealers/installers. These products are used for residential, commercial, industrial and government installations. Its products include security products/ magnetic reed switches, data entry peripherals, pushbutton switches, custom engraved keycaps and proximity sensors.

The security segment has approximately 3,000 customers. One of the distributors, ADI accounts for approximately 40% of the Company's sales of these products. The keyboard segment has approximately 800 customers. Keyboard products are sold to original equipment manufacturers to their specifications and to distributors of off-the-shelf keyboards of proprietary design. GRI owns and operates its main manufacturing plant and offices in Kimball, Nebraska with a satellite plant 40 miles away in Gering, Nebraska.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] or even just above book value. It's a darn good business so I'm getting high quality assets and earnings power. That gets less clear when looking at lower quality businesses.

  For example:

  Solitron (SODI) sells at 74% of NCAV, has decent z- and f-scores, a FCF margin of 5.3% and an ROA of 12%.

• [By Geoff Gannon] >Ark Restaurants (ARKR). When I bought them - and even now - I think their return on buyback would be high and I'd be in favor of it. However, the stocks are illiquid and their free cash flow relative to the dollar value of freely traded shares is not high. As a result, I'm always in favor of RSKIA and ARKR buying back stock. But, I understand it's very hard for them to do in practice unless there is a meaningful holder who signals he wants out of the stock.

  My approach to buybacks is pretty simple. One, I prefer them. Two, I look at the share count history over the last 10 to 20 years as my guide to what the company might do in the future - I want a pattern of predictable behavior. Generally, that means a continuously shrinking share count that shrinks in bull markets and bear markets, panics and recessions and booms and busts and so on. Three, if I'm a buyer of the stock - then the company should be a buyer of its own stock. No questions asked on that one. If the stock is good enough for me to buy it's clearly good enough for the company to buy. Finally, I look for the return on buyback. I tend to focus on the earning power the company is buying relative to the net cash it is spending. If a company has cash on its balance sheet, the amount of net cash consumed by a buyback will be less than it appears because I will end up with a greater percentage ownership of the resulting balance sheet as well as the income statement.

  I want the return on buyback to always be at least 10%. As a rule, the average company will only get returns on its buybacks of 10% or higher if it pays less than 15 times normal earnings. In special cases - fast growing companies, companies where free cash flow vastly exceeds reported income, etc. - it is possible that buybacks above 15 times earnings will return more than 10%. It almost never makes sense for a company to buy back stock at over 25 times earnings. So, for most companies, under 15 times earnings is the green zone for bu

• [By Geoff Gannon] n. When it traded around $4.50 (it�� now more like $7.50 a share) it was a net-net with a good business and a moat. There were risks ��customer concentration for one ��and it was no blue chip. There was no diversification of product lines, customers, geography, industry, etc. It was closely tied to U.S. construction activity.

  All this means it was no blue chip. Not that it didn�� have a moat. I felt it did. And certainly not that it wasn�� a high quality business. It demonstrably was (unleveraged returns on tangible equity were around 30%). And it was a net-net. In fact, it was a net cash stock at one time.

  So they do happen. But they are rare. The usual distinction with net-nets is not between companies like that ��companies which may have a moat, do earn good returns on capital, etc. ��but between companies that are legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

  A legitimate business is ��in my mind ��a historically profitable one. It is likely to have positive retained earnings (there are exceptions to this rule ��but it�� a good first check). It should have more years of profits (6 or more) than losses in the last 10 years. And it should be self-financing.

  Compare this to an illegitimate business. The least legitimate businesses are those that ��while publicly traded ��have never turned a profit and can�� self finance. They may be net-nets ��but they are net-nets because they have issued stock in the past and then seen their share prices drop. Retained earnings are often negative.

  There are other factors to consider. Is the business old or young? Is depreciation ��and other accounting ��especially conservative or aggressive? Are taxes especially conservative or aggressive? And is share issuance dilutive or not.

  I think a legitimate business tends towards LIFO accounting, quicker depreciation, higher taxes paid as a percentage of reported income, and lower share issuance. There are exceptions. Many

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: Makism 3D Corp (MDDD)

Makism 3D Corp., incorporated on May 4 2010, is a three dimensional (3D) printer manufacturing company. The Company produces consumer and professional grade 3D printers. The Company�� flagship product, branded as the Wideboy family of printers, offers packaging designed to fit any office or professional space.

Its 3D printers utilize British and German engineered components. Its printers are assembled in Cambridge (United Kingdom).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  In retrospect, their pullbacks come as no real surprise. Neither Voxeljet AG (NYSE:VJET) nor Camtek LTD. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw their shares soar on any news that was meaningfully sustainable, and after the "shoot first, ask questions later" market had a chance to start asking questions, it became clear that - even with the largest of glimmers of corporate progress unveiled a few weeks ago - CAMT and VJET both had been bid up more on hype and less on substance. Meanwhile (and this could be bitterly ironic to some), a small cap play in the same 3D printing space that (1) didn't beat the daylights out of its hype-drum, and (2) is actually much closer to bringing a revenue-bearing product to the market [per today's news - more on that below] isn't getting anywhere near the same attention. That company? Makism 3D Corp. (OTCBB:MDDD). The good news is, MDDD finally looks like it's revving its engine, while Camtek and Voxeljet AG shares continue to deteriorate.

• [By John Udovich]

  Although the subject of a recent market correction,�3D printing and 3D printer stocks like�3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD), Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS), ExOne Co (NASDAQ: XONE)�and Makism 3D Corp. (OTCBB: MDDD) largely remain hot, but what strategy should investors and/or traders alike take moving forward? Just consider the following latest news about the 3D printing industry or�3D printer stocks:

Best Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2014: Fusion-io Inc (FIO)

Fusion-io Inc (Fusion) is a provider of datacenter solutions that accelerate databases, virtualization, cloud computing, big data, and the applications that help drive business from the smallest e-tailers to some of the largest data centers, social media leaders, and Fortune Global 500 businesses. The Company's integrated hardware and software platform enables the decentralization of data from legacy architectures and specialized hardware. The Company sells its solutions through a global direct sales force, original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, including Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM, and other channel partners. In August 2011, the Company acquired IO Turbine, Inc.,. Effective March 18, 2013, the Company acquired ID7.

Fusion-io's ioMemory hardware is a sub-system connecting a large array of industry-standard NAND Flash memory through the Company's data-path controller and its virtual storage layer, or VSL, software to create a high capacity memory tier that natively attaches to a server's PCI-Express peripheral bus (PCIe).

The Company's portfolio of storage memory products incorporates the Company's ioMemory hardware combined with its virtual storage layer (VSL) and caching software into its family of ioDrive, ioFX, and ioCache enterprise grade products. The Company's ioDrive products work in conjunction with the Company's directCache data-tiering software, ioTurbine virtualization software, ioSphere management system, and ION Data Accelerator software. The Company's latest ioDrive, ioFX, and ioCache product families are a line of PCIe standard form-factor storage memory platforms that combine one or more ioMemory sub-systems with the Company's VSL software.

The Company's directCache software extends the Company's ioMemory based platforms and permits interoperability with traditional direct-attached, network-attached, storage area network attached, and appliance attached backend storage systems. The Company's ioTurbine virtualization software extends the Company! 's ioMemory platform and permits host-based data acceleration to specifically address the demand for high-density, high-performance server, and desktop virtualization.

ioSphere is a suite of management software purpose-built for the Company's storage memory infrastructure and designed around its application acceleration platform. ioSphere software is accessible through a graphical user interface that enables datacenter administrators to centrally configure, monitor, manage, and tune all distributed ioMemory devices throughout the datacenter. In addition, this software offers real-time, predictive, and historical reporting of ioMemory's performance and wear.

The Company's ION Data Accelerator software transforms server platforms into application acceleration appliances that share Fusion ioMemory across applications. ION Data Accelerator delivers Fusion-io performance on open server platforms with software-defined storage, or SDS, for applications such as Oracle RAC, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and SAP HANA, along with other applications where shared storage aids deployment. The Company's original equipment manufacturer�� (OEMs), including Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM, sell branded storage memory solutions based on the Company's standard products as well as custom form-factor versions to fit specific applications.

The Company competes with EMC Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P, Texas Memory Systems, Oracle, Adaptec, Inc., LSI Corporation, Sandisk, Corp, IBM, CA, Inc, Nagios Enterprises, LLC., Hitachi Data, Huawei Technologies, Co., Intel Corp., LSI Corporation, Marvell Semiconductor, Inc., Micron Technology, Inc., OCZ Technology Group, Inc., Samsung Electronics, Inc., SanDisk, Corp., Seagate Technology, STEC, Inc., Toshiba Corp., and Western Digital Corp.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, storage memory platform company Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO  ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO) shares were also up, gaining 23.11 percent to $11.43 after SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) announced its plans to buy Fusion-io for $11.25 per share in cash.