NetApp - Exposed

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.

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.

My first Twitterview…

… will be this Thursday the 27th!  Please follow @valb00 and @storageswiss if you’d like to view the entire Twitterview live as it happens.  I can’t reveal quite yet what it will be about – but if you’ve followed this blog lately I’m sure you can guess :)

Stay tuned on this blog and Twitter for more details on the exact time and other logistics.

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.

Blweet – Google’s Cathartic Day

What’s a blweet?  Well it’s a short blog post that’s longer than a tweet of course!  According to a basic Google / Bing search, I may actually be coining the term, so you read it here first.

NetApp Cloud Presentation @ Avanade TechSummit 2009

Avanade TechSummit 2009 is the premier Avanade technology event of the year, which brings together top technology experts, leaders and industry luminaries to share ideas and knowledge, showcase customer successes and network on a global level.

Freudian Typo

Given everything that’s going on between us and EMC lately, this has to be the most unfortunately timed corporate typo in quite a while.  OTOH - if you take EMC claims at face value, then this kinda proves the point that our FAS & V-Series primary dedupe is superior.

 

Kudos to the good doctor for catching this!