We have all heard of a LAN and even a WAN. But how about a SAN? Yes, the Storage Area Network could in fact, become something to be sought after.

Four years of research later and the storage company financed by Oracle head honcho Larry Ellison is finally moving product out of the door and naming its first customers. San Jose, Calif.-based Pillar Data Systems is to launch the SAN (storage area network) version of its Axiom hardware, software combo in three to four weeks, while the NAS (network attached storage) release quietly slipped into the market in April.

Pillar is garnering plenty of attention thanks to Ellison, the company’s sole investor to the tune of $150 million via his Tako Ventures LLC firm. The firm already employs 325 staff, 70 percent of them in research and development, and is expanding aggressively. Pillar is also aggressively pricing its products, which it claims are easy to install, are flexible and will simplify storage management.

Mike Workman, Pillar’s ebullient president and chief executive officer, came to the company with 20 years experience in the storage business, including stints with IBM and Conner Peripherals. He told IDG News Service how he ended up at Pillar and about working with Ellison. Following is an edited transcript of that conversation. [Read the rest]