NetApp - Exposed

Got Dynamic Data Center Envy?

Are you operating an inflexible, legacy data center with rigid infrastructure incapable of adapting to today’s business needs?  Are you looking to break from your static data center bonds and upgrade to a Dynamic Data Center?

If so and you’re in the mood for some “Storage Camp” on YouTube, sit back, grab a coffee & donut, and spend some time watching NetApp Employees spoof ABC’s Extreme Makeover Show – the Data Center Edition! :)

Enabling, rather than (V)blocking Cloud Adoption

(This will be the first of a series of posts outlining the differences between NetApp’s and EMC’s Cloud Strategies)

The worst-kept secret Acadia joint venture between Cisco, EMC and clearly reluctant VMware finally hit the wires today.  Based on the buzz generated by the VMworld rumor mill all the way back in August, today’s announcement probably needs to be added as another example of this.

Jay summarized our strategic view of why “doing best-of-breed right” is better than vendor lock-in by removing customer choice.  Apparently, he’s not alone.  Yet as I was absorbing the locust swarm of related Twitter commentary and media / blog coverage, an eerie sense of déjà-vu came over me.  Has EMC gone and done it again?

The future of Cloud Storage – See it (and me!) at SNW USA

Want some insider info?  A few weeks ago, storage insiders got to see and comment on SNIA’s proposed Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) standard.  Tomorrow morning at SNW USA in Phoenix, the storage public gets to witness the future of Cloud Storage firsthand.

Flash in the Pan^H^H^H Cloud

Two of my favorite technical topics of discussion are solid-state storage and the Cloud Computing trend.  Talking about each has become more than work for me, it’s become a hobby.  Talking about both in context is even cooler!

Tomorrow morning, I have the opportunity to discuss the intersection of these two topics on a morning panel at IDEMA DISKCON 2009.  How Cloud Storage is Changing the Building Blocks of Traditional Enterprise Storage will be hosted by:

• John Rydning, Research Director, Hard Disk Drives, IDC and
• Rick Villars, Vice President for Storage Systems & Executive Strategies, IDC

Experts from 3PAR, LSI & Pliant will join me on tomorrow morning’s panel (Session 4 @ 9:00am on Thursday Sept 24th).  I look forward to the discussion and will post feedback and my PPT once it’s done.

If you’re at the conference or near Santa Clara and are interested, I hope to see you there!

NetApp Cloud Resources

The ramifications of NetApp’s Cloud Launch last week are long-lasting and profound.  So much so that we didn’t even have time to highlight all of the new Cloud-specific resources available. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Burden of Success

Would VMware be in it’s current enterprise server virtualization leadership position if they had decided to cap ESX technology 3 years ago? (not sure of exact timing, but am sure someone will correct me :)  What would be the consequences of declaring VMotion requires a whole new image, disk and disk pool format, incompatible with VMware ESX / GSX or Workstation/Fusion formats?  I propose that would have resulted in a far worse reality for VMware and their customers than what we enjoy today.

Recap - NetApp Cloud Twitterview

When learning about new technology and related business models, dialogues are much more useful than monologues.  Social Media avenues offer useful tools for vendors to educate the market.  Twitter (and I suppose Facebook’s FriendFeed) have become excellent vehicles for engaging in a dialogue with your audience.  These tools are also more transparent than some corporate propaganda blogs which attempt to censor healthy debate after posting provocative FUD.

Twitter’s conversational nature is also more conducive to humorous sarcasm. My new favorite tag is @sfoskett’s #selftweetthursday :)

NetApp Cloud – The Twitterview

Join me and George Crump today @ 11:00 am PT / 2:00 pm ET to see us discuss NetApp’s recent Cloud Launch for about 40 minutes.

I’ll be answering George's Tweet-questions for the first 20 minutes, followed by other public tweets in the final 20 minutes.  See my related blog below for who to follow if you want to view the Twitterview live in real-time.

NetApp 3.0

Innovation is easy.  Particularly when you have limited scope and no installed base to carry forward.  On the other hand continuous innovation, delivering compounding value to a growing market at every turn, is not only hard - it is highly risky.  So much so that there are startlingly few companies who have survived such ambitions of repeated innovation – along with the difficult transitions involved.

Last week’s historic announcement prompted me to examine several key attributes which set “innovation survivors” apart from the litany of failures.

NetApp’s Cloud Journey - Continued

In the beginning of our Journey, I covered Cloud origins and history, as well as NetApp’s definition of our Cloud Market opportunity.  Key lessons around not competing against your best customers and the requirement for a Cloud Ecosystem and implementation scope were also reviewed.

This blog will continue the discussion, building on the concepts from my prior blog in order to complete the introduction of NetApp’s Cloud Strategy.