NetApp - Exposed

Two major influences on Enterprise Storage

Music and complexity.

Apple's iPod

The connection is not immediately obvious to some, but this nice overview of the current state of Flash Storage reveals the risks and opportunities that this promising technology revolution is confronting our industry with. Were it not for the overwhelming popularity (especially unit volume of Apple's flash-based) iPod models, the momentum of price reductions driving this trend would not be possible.

Flash changes *everything*

The more I study the impact of flash, the more I'm convinced of two conclusions:

1. The storage industry impact of this technology reaches *far* beyond most people's imaginations, and
2. NetApp's Hardware and Software Intellectual Property is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend in a manner far greater than current NetApp competitors.

I plan to spend a lot of time blogging on the huge NetApp potential for this technology, so stay tuned and feel free to share comments on related topics and ramifications you'd like me to address.

Faster, greener storage is not necessarily simpler

The powerfully simple concepts of "Data Sets" and "Policies" will save enterprise storage. The more our industry brings cool products to market, the more challenges we present our user base with regarding managing them all.

Read Kostadis' coverage of a pivotal NetApp solution to this problem.

As per above, you can expect more coverage on this topic here in the future.

The force is also strong with Chris

Chris Mellor that is, from Blocks & Files.

I summarized the Zen of NetApp in one of my first blog posts, and despite the mixed metaphors, Chris did an outstanding job in his opinion piece on us the other day very much in the same vein.

If you want to *really* understand NetApp, it's definitely worth a read!

And "Hulk" makes 10

EMC just wrapped up their annual user/partner conference in Vegas, and believe it or not - announced even more incompatible HW/SW platforms for their poor sales, partner and customer communities to wade through in search of "simple" solutions to business problems.

EMC - Where buzzwords live

Never missing an opportunity to jump on a proven buzzword bandwagon, EMC managed to add Deduplication, MAID/spin-down, Green, Reduced Energy, and of course the ubiquitous "TCO" to their backup repertoire.  Everyone's favorite storage curmudgeon Jon Toigo had a pretty good take on the announcement as well as the paid analyst commentary.

NetApp "Intestinal Fortitude" Brings Joy to Billions

My most active EMC sparring partner (StorageZilla) certainly has a way with words, starting with a reference to hibernation and ending a recent post anticipating our "next big marketing bowel movement."  In case you're reading this near mealtime, let me assure you that I'm not going to extend that tempting metaphor any further than I have to :-)

The Canadian Perspective

If 'Zilla only lived thru the winter I just endured, perhaps he would understand why hibernation is a very appropriate explanation for my 3 month delay in between recent posts.  Digging out form under 3+ yards (that's basically 3 meters to you metric readers) of snow - including a full one during the last storm of the year - will do that to you!  Yes that is my house :-)

Interestingly our intrepid EMC blogger is a reborn Mac user and also a pop culture movie fan with a penchant for SciFi, two of many things I suspect we have in common.  Closer to home, Zilla also references a fictional army in that blog post which is led by a character played by a very accomplished Canadian actor.

The world would be a lot less fun without Data ONTAP GX

Aiming low - Clouds at our feet

Pun Alert - Pun Alert!  I apologize in advance for the gratuitous weather-related puns in this and other blog posts regarding Cloud (or next-gen clustered aka scale-out) Storage, but we can't help ourselves.  Pithy blog titles are practically mandatory, aren't they?

Storage vendors both large and small are clamoring to announce their next-generation offerings.  The pace of announcements has been accelerating in 2008.  Without trying to ignore anyone in particular, my alphabetical list of next-gen storage competitors to NetApp includes but is not limited to:

• ExaNet (making waves with Fujitsu-Siemens lately)
• Ibrix (which I predict will be assimilated by the EMC Borg as early as next week)
• Isilon (neat technology, but still learning how to run a business)
• OnStor (still around, seemingly partnering with Fujitsu-not-Siemens now that 3Par prefers NetApp as their NAS Gateway)
• Panasas (diligently working to break out of their niche any decade now)
• PolyServe (HP's clustered NAS science project)
• XIV (IBM's play, notable for possessing the lone block-based architecture of this group)

So why am I disappointed?

Exposed 2.0

I'm baaaaack!

This is the obligatory apology post for not publishing in a while.   No excuses except to announce that this blog has been foremost enough in my mind that I decided to alter my career path (by joining the NetApp Office of the CTO) in order to be able to spend more time here.  Careful what you wish for!

One of my closest high-school buddies is a blog pioneer and early on in his blogging career (almost 3 years ago) posted this very thoughtful observation: The Blog is a Harsh Mistress

While I understood what he was saying at the time, I have only recently begun to actually feel Adam's pain from his early blogging days.

Industry Fodder (Someone, somewhere is getting paid by the buzzword)

Thankfully, our industry continues to supply a healthy amount of topics both controversial and innovative to comment on, so there is no shortage of material for me to catch up on.  Industry trends such as virtualization, deduplication, flash, emerging standards, web 2.0/3.0, clouds/grids/clusters among others will dominate my coverage here.  Feel free to comment on which you'd like to see first!

2008 Election Parallels

Maybe it's just me, but I've been struck by dozens of parallels between the US Democratic Party nomination battle and the two horse race in the storage industry.  Inclusive vs divisive behavior, guilt by association, smear campaigns and cowardly propaganda are elements common between the competitive storage industry and bitterly fought electoral battles.  Coincidentally, now that the nomination phase is nearing an end, I believe it's perfect timing to draw those parallels and do some "near live" blogging on the actual electoral battle to come between now and November.

N.U.L.L. & VOID

Finally, I'm going to introduce a major new category within the next week or so which will dominate my posts here until the mission is accomplished - and I don't mean "dubya style"!  I'm offering a genuine PEI DIRT SHIRT to the first person who can guess what that heading stands for before I "out it" later on next week.