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

Which brings me to an interesting dilemma for NetApp's scale-out competitors (heads-up fanboys of EMC - you don't even qualify to be in this club yet) who are also movie buffs.  What do the following well-known past, present and future blockbuster film franchises have in common?

Star Wars	Indiana Jones
Chronicles of Narnia	Transformers
Iron Man	Ice Age
Shrek	Harry Potter
Pirates of the Caribbean	Mission Impossible
Jason Bourne Series	Toy Story
The Mummy	Wallace & Gromit
The Matrix	Lord of the Rings

From about 2002 onwards, none of these movie releases would have seen (or will soon see) the light of day (pardon the inside pun if you're an animator) in their popular award-winning form and during their planned timeframes - without the breakthrough capabilities of NetApp's Data ONTAP & GX technology! Most impressively this table is but a small subset of the captivating overall movie list NetApp has had the pleasure of helping deliver this decade.

Due to the impression GX has a somewhat subdued marketing focus within NetApp, it seems GX is a frequent target of envious competitors tossing baseless claims of failure.  In reality, over and above huge wins in the medical, energy, finance & government sectors, NetApp's dominance of the animation and post-production special effects houses offers a solid and globally relevant rebuttal to that silly competitive FUD.  You don't have to be a storage geek to relate to the impact Data ONTAP GX has had on this global industry of movie producers and consumers.

Thanks to the great escapist pleasure movies (especially good ones) offer billions of people worldwide, it gives me an enormous sense of pride (deep in my gut :-) to be a part of a great company that actually makes this happen!

Pretending to underestimate your adversary

Zilla's comments actually follow a well-known tactic of EMC's to publicly downplay key competitors while modeling internal development based on their innovations.  EMC's recent Celerra "Unified Storage" product and VMware ESX/VDI solution positioning are but two recent shameless examples.  It's actually the sincerest form of flattery, so thanks EMC - we're honored. :-)

Perhaps the biggest irony of all is the crux of Zilla's metaphor in his latest NetApp rant blog.  The Chronicles of Riddick was actually post-produced on NetApp storage!

Postscript

Late-breaking update.  Most if not all of this summer's hottest blockbusters are being animated and post-produced on NetApp storage. Iron Man, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , Speed Racer (maybe that one will connect with a DVD audience :-),WALL*E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian & Kung Fu Panda (Premiering this week @ Cannes) are the ones I can rattle off the top of my head. There are many more on that list.

I've also been told later in the Fall as well as 2009, NetApp will contribute to the release of Pixar's "Up" & Toy Story 3 as well as Halo, Madagascar: The Crate Escape, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as well as The Guardians of Ga'Hoole, among many others.

I love my job :-)

Comments

[Guy]

Thanks, Val, for the great read.

(But if you're stuck underneath 3m of snow for three months anyway, could you please also provide your reviews of these movies in your next account?)

[Val Bercovici]

Hi Guy,

You'll have to catch me on Facebook to review my favorite movies, but for new releases, I've found myself almost always agreeing with Joe Morgenstern over @ WSJ.

:-)

[Val Bercovici]

An even better link to Joe's reviews here on Rotten Tomatoes.