Top 10 Things I’m Thankful For

1. My family – for being patient with my long hours and many days away from home
2. NetApp – for truly being the best place to work
3. Our customers – for choosing superior technology & support over incumbent offerings
4. Our partners – for enabling our success and championing NetApp
5. Our shareholders – for funding our strategy supporting NTAP independence
6. Our community – for cordially and professionally exchanging their knowledge and helping each other
7. The tech industry – for endless innovation, helping lead the way out of this nasty recession
8. My hometown hockey team for punching above their weight this season
9. Their arch-rival hockey team, for sucking wind this season :)
10. For not writing goofy blogs like this, letting the target have the last  laugh (with an encore)

Comments

[FredK]

Apparently you should also be thankful for HP who are in the process of systematically driving their customers to you:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/11/24/hp_storage_slow/

Lame attempts at FUD are an example of the "why"
http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/WAFL_Performance

[Jordan]

Well said Val. We in the industry do indeed have plenty to be thankful for! Now more than ever..

[MikeT]

Thanks for the excellent presentation yesterday Val. It was nice to see Cisco, VMware and NetApp present the secure multitenancy solution together. Seems much more valuable than piecing together a Vblock lego-style!

[StorageInvestor]

Interesting timing dredging up Chuck's blog-attack on NTAP. Just chatting with some DDUP buds of mine, and they're definitely upset with the patronizing EMC culture-clash of late.

Not like this YouTube parody didn't warn them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfopdV8dMNU

Some old history is worth repeating:
http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/65134-naveen-selvaraj/19327-emc-data-domain-acquisition-is-a-sign-of-desperation-rather-than-consolidation

And this latest story is really pouring salt on the DDUPers' EMC-inflicted wounds :-)
http://seekingalpha.com/article/174679-netapp-single-and-lovin-it

No matter how you slice it, Robin Harris was right. NetApp is setting the agenda for EMC to follow!
http://storagemojo.com/2009/06/01/emc-plays-catchup-with-netapp/

[EDR]

I second FredK's comment above. All NetApp employees should be thankful their competitive team is not comprised of idiots such as HP's storage team seems to employ.

For background on my rant, see article + comments here:
http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/WAFL_Performance

Cheers,
EDR

[RickD]

Very interesting discussion over there on WikiBon. Looks like the HP dweeb is getting schooled by a customer. Wonder if Karl is gunning for Chuck to win the storage scumbag of the year award?

Will 2010 finally be the year when EMC and HP start to compete against NTAP with product instead of FUD? I sincerely hope so. This industry needs more technology competition and less rhetoric.