NetApp - Exposed

The Ironic Tension of Whistleblowing

Some of the greatest injustices are often propagated by the most powerful forces - even in plain sight of many witnesses who stay on the sidelines. The bravery of Whistleblowing is within everyone's reach when you're only exposing yourself to the backlash. However when the risk and sacrifice extends to others around you (including loved ones) going public is not always the right answer.

Forrester Research once again confirms what industry watchers like us already suspect. They report that the severe economic downturn upon us will significantly increase litigation this year. As Beth's StorageSoup blog points out today, IT departments are struggling to address last year's pace of archiving and discovery requests, leaving them in no position to handle the anticipated increases for 2009. In light of that, the last thing strained IT departments need to worry about is wasting precious time and resources on redundant data audits verifying assumptions about the fundamental integrity of their digital archives. The same archives that are supposed to protect the integrity of the parent organization itself.

If you've followed the "Exposed" blog this week, you won't be surprised by the copious feedback to my post about EMC Centera's weak reputation for data integrity. It turns out many subject-matter experts did indeed have lots of revealing professional insight into the situation. Yet unfortunately due to the collateral damage to their parent companies, all were reluctant to publish their thoughts publicly on this blog.

Except one.

Building an Admirable Billion Dollar Company - The Recipe Book

"It's easy - All we have to do is sell products we haven't developed yet, to customers we haven't met yet, with people we haven't hired yet" -- Tom Mendoza in 1994 upon receiving a billion-dollar quota after booking $40M the year before.

I've known Dave Hitz for almost 11 years now, and I still marvel at his story-telling abilities. It's not just that he can repeat a story well, or that he can craft a compelling original one with the same ease. Dave has this rare talent for distilling complex scenarios of all kinds (technology, business, life, etc...) into simple analogies which even my immigrant grandparents could understand. The final subtle yet critical distinction is that he does it without insulting their intelligence. Add a disarming wry sense of humor and you've got the formula for what makes Dave truly exceptional.

Venture Capitalists are highly paid professionals who focus full-time on identifying the next "great idea" and then molding it into an enterprise which will hopefully reward their efforts handsomely. They've each developed their own proprietary formulas for success which understandably remain closely guarded secrets in their community.

This is the book for the rest of us.

In it, Dave applies his highly approachable story-telling skills at exposing critical lessons learned along the way towards building the very special company that NetApp has become. Executives and business leaders will naturally absorb many key elements from this book, but the real magic of it lies in the long-term observations that every employee of a young, ambitious, successful company can take away.

Is NetApp Perfect?

Short answer no.  We will never get there but we'll also never stop trying.  Many respected industry observers like our efforts so far.  Here's a recent one in particular (click image for full story)

EMC Centera Customers - Consider Your Whistle Blown

LOST is one of my favorite TV shows, but it is a work of fiction. Reality can be much harsher.

If you left your coat with the coat check service at a restaurant or theater, you would naturally expect to get it back upon producing the claim ticket. How upset would you be if the restaurant or theater lost your coat in this scenario? What are your legal options or reimbursement expectations in that case?

Now what if this same scenario involves your car left with a valet parking attendant? The stakes just got much higher. But it doesn't stop there. These metaphors can sadly escalate into nightmarish proportions when dealing with corporate data worth billions of dollars - or in the most extreme cases - patient data which of course is priceless.

NetApp's Secret Competitive Advantage

Over a year and a half ago when I still ran our competitive team, I was asked a relatively straightforward question by our CEO (Dan Warmenhoven) during the taping of a company-wide radio (podcast) interview.

What is NetApp's Competitive Advantage?

Both of us were probably thinking I would build my answer starting with our cool technology, or maybe some exciting upcoming product announcement. Perhaps I would regale in a sales anecdote about how we displaced a direct competitor in a major account.

But as I was formulating the response in my head, I quickly navigated to the source of it all.

Miracle on the Hudson

Nothing like a Metropolis superhero-style story to help people forget about negative headlines for a while and put the gift of life into proper perspective.  I love this picture of today's aftermath because after the miracle of 100% survival from a plane crash, it also looks like these survivors are literally performing the miracle of walking on water!

For frequent travelers like me though, Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie may now come to mind in a whole new context :)

There are so many near-disasters averted in this story that it makes you wonder if this is some kind of post-9/11, post-flight 587, post-Wall St. collapse type Karma.  Regardless of the motivation behind today's fate - Kudos to Scully and the crew of US1549!

Vicious or Virtuous in 2009? Choose Your Cycle!

The headlines of early 2009 are hardly encouraging.  After almost two decades of avid purchasing, consumers have lost confidence in the economy, thereby slowing their spending.  As a result, business revenue is down, driving pressure to lay employees off in an effort to maintain profitability or minimize losses.  Layoff notices further erode consumer confidence and the vicious cycle continues.

The downturn in the information technology sector is a microcosm of this broader economic phenomenon.  But in our world of enterprise storage there is a clear way to break out of this Vicious Cycle and turn it around 180 degrees…

Transition - Past is Prologue

Continuing with my Obama theme for a bit, the beginning of 2009 offers us more political and economic limbo.  Yet for the IT infrastructure industry and storage in particular, there are numerous lessons that emerged at the end of 2008 which we can apply as we sit down with our peers to figure out 2009.

Three sources in particular are worth paying attention to as we look for a common theme to emerge.