Chuck's Blog

Do-It-Yourself Storage

I've always been amazed at the different ways you can slice the storage market: by access method (DAS, SAN, NAS, CAS, etc.), by architecture (single controller, dual controller, multi-controller, RAIN, scale-out, clusters, etc.), even by consumption model (e.g. traditional vs. storage-as-a-service).

To this growing list of taxonomies, I think we're going to have to add another: pre-integrated storage vs. do-it-yourself.

And, strangely, I think that there will be certain places where this is going to be popular.  But most organizations will probably never consider it seriously.

Here's why ...

Single Vs. Multiple Vendor Approaches

A while back, I commented on the growing disparity I was seeing to these different approaches to storage in larger customer environments.

Not surprisingly, I was taken to task by many over my observations.  "Of course", they'd offer, "what else would you expect a large vendor to say?"

Well, I'm signing up for another round of punishment.

Why?  It's getting even clearer to me with each passing week.

I Don't Know Quite What To Think ...

If you follow this blog, you know I have heartburn with cheap marketing stunts in our industry.

But last night, I came across a clever one, and -- to be honest -- I'm not quite sure what to think about it.

Let me explain it a bit, and perhaps you can share your thoughts?

Of Vendor Presentations

As of late, I have been asked to do all manner of speaking engagements to large audiences.

I don't know whether it's the season, or people are more interested in what EMC has to say than before -- it doesn't really matter.  All I know is that my calendar is now relatively full with all sorts of high profile speaking events.

And, of course, this is causing me to reflect a bit on what's going on, and what it might mean.

"Independent Analysis" -- Is There Hope?

I try to avoid rants in this blog.  It doesn't make for especially good reading, I've found.

But one of the topics that has elevated my blood pressure over the last few years has been the practice of vendors funding "independent analysis" or "independent research" that -- surprisingly! -- says exactly what the vendor might want it to say.

Someone sent a report from the Aberdeen Group my way that actually gave me a bit of hope that the practice -- and its participants -- might be coming around to a different way of doing things.

Put differently, there might be hope!

Tiers, Tiers Everywhere

I've been noticing increased activity from vendors large and small to offer newer tiers of storage in our crowded, noisy marketplace.

That's a good thing -- the more choices we all have, the better.

But, at the same time, I think it's also important to have a bigger context about what's going on here, and what it might mean for consumers of these technologies.

Data DeDupe -- Product or Feature?

Ah, you've got to love this bloggy world we're living in.

Today's post was driven by industry speculation that EMC and Quantum might be doing something.

Which, of course, lead to a broader discussion on data deduplication.

And, inevitably, I felt I might weigh in and try and attempt a tiny bit of clarification here.

Wishful Thinking

Many of you noticed NetApp's recent rebranding push this week.

Since I'm sort of a marketing guy, and NetApp is sort of a competitor, I watched with considerable interest.

Simply stated, it didn't seem to go so good for them.

And I think there are some lessons to be learned for all IT vendors.

Storage Protocols, VMware and Religion

Funny, isn't it?  How most technology questions break into religious camps?

I've noticed that there's a fair amount of religion around which storage protocol is "better" for VMware: FC, NAS, iSCSI?

And, like most things, a fair amount of agnosticism might be appropriate.

Is Your Storage Vendor Serious About Storage?

Today's news was sad for parts of the community, but somewhat inevitable.

Apple decided that they were essentially getting out of the enterprise storage business.

I'm not one to criticize Apple's move -- in some regards, it's not surprising -- but I think the announcement will cause many to reflect on who they're buying this technology from, and their commitment to the business.

BTW, like most of you, I have enormous respect for what Apple has done over the past decade.  I fully appreciate who they are, and what they're trying to do.  On one level, they've redefined what it means to be "cool" in the technology biz.

But, with all due respect, they had no business being in the storage business.  As a reseller or OEM, perhaps.  But as a manufacturer of the core technology, it was a really bad idea from Day One, IMHO.

Skiing And Storage

OK, this is going to be an off-beat post.  I'm on vacation this week (sort of), skiing in New Hampshire. 

So, what can possibly be the connection between skiing and storage?

It'll be a little strained, but I'll get there ... just be patient.

SAP and EMC?

Saw this little gem come across the wire today, speculating on a tie-up between SAP and EMC on "web hosting services".

And, while it's very true that EMC brings a lot of value to an SAP environment, I'm not going to comment on the specifics of this article -- sorry, folks, that's beyond my pay grade ;-)

But the author did a great job tying together a number of concepts and trends into an interesting story, and I thought it'd be worthwhile to spend a bit of time and share some of the behind-the-scenes thinking here.

NetApp Takes Benchmarketing To New Levels!

That's what the press release SHOULD have said ...

I thought I had seen it all before.

But my colleagues at NetApp win this week's prize for "creative marketing".

They've just submitted SPC-1 benchmarks on a few of EMC's products. 

And written a nice press release as well.

My oh my ...

Seismic Shifts In Outsourcing Land

It wasn't too long ago that outsourcers were causing considerable consternation in both IT customers and vendors.

Mega-outsourcing was all the rage.  If you were a large IT organization, you took this trend very seriously, for all the right reasons.  And if you were an IT vendor like EMC, your world was very different if your customer got outsourced.

But I think that the outsourcing marketplace itself is going through some pretty massive changes.  And, as I spend more time with outsourcers, I realize that some are moving quickly towards the new reality, and other -- well -- others are moving a bit more slowly.

And, if you're an industry watcher like me, it's an interesting story for customers, vendors and outsourcers alike.

Enterprise Flash Drives and DMX -- The Aftermath

Every now and then, I get a ringside seat on a textbook example of human behavior in this industry.

And, I have to share with you, the reaction to EMC's recent announcement of enterprise flash drives for the DMX was very interesting, less about the factual content of what was said, but the different positions everyone took, and why.

And, going back over past experiences, I'm realizing that the last few days is a template of how a fiercely competitive, vibrant industry (e.g. storage) reacts to something truly new.

IBM Acquires XiV

Thought I'd be able to ease back into the new year slowly, but - no - right off the bat IBM made a bold move that's got everyone talking.

You can see the press releases here and here.  Basically, IBM paid somewhere between $300m and $350m for a storage startup.

I'm sure lots of people will weigh in here, but I'd like to offer a few thoughts on this one.

Looks Like A Jackalope To Me

Don't know if you've ever taken a car trip through the Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Wyoming, et. al.) but if you stop in a friendly diner, you're likely to see a picture of a "jackalope" -- a monstrous cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope.

The locals will tell you with a straight face how the nearby ranchers prefer them to horses since they run much faster and eat less.  Of course, no such thing exists, but it's good fun.

For some reason, there are those in the industry trying to make a connection between an extremely hot topic (server/desktop virtualization) and less-popular topics (storage virtualization, dedupe, thin provisioning, etc.).

Just like the infamous jackalope, the possibility is plausible to tourists, but somewhat of an inside joke to the locals.

Storage Virtualization and Invista 2.0

You might have seen EMC's announcement of Invista 2.0.  I thought this topic deserved a bit of context.

Storage virtualization has turned out to be one of those long-simmering topics in this industry.  And it's still going to simmer for a while, I'd predict.  This game isn't anywhere near from being over yet.

Best as I can recollect, although the industry was talking about at the end of the 1990s, the discussion got very hot at EMC in the 2002-2003 timeframe.

We knew that this was going to be an important storage technology, but we had some hard choices to make.

If anything, one of the things I like about working for EMC is that we study the problem, and are willing to make the hard choices -- and stick with them -- to get to where we want to be with our customers.

And with the recent announcement of Invista 2.0, I think it's a good time to reflect on the journey, where EMC and the industry has ended up, and maybe a bit of what happens from here.

Dear IBM: Denial Is Not A River In Egypt ...

I used to comment a lot on the strange behaviors of others in our industry.

I received some good coaching that I should do this infrequently -- if at all -- so I have been endeavoring to work in this direction.

However, the craziness hasn't abated -- nor has the commentary.

As an example, read this recent breathless press release from IBM on their "leadership in the storage software market". 

And then go read Chris Preimesberger's of eWeek's most excellent disembowelment exercise. 

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Chris at a dinner event a while back.  Not your ordinary journalist, I'd offer.  I've found his other material very astute as well.  He's a really interesting guy to talk to as well, if you ever get the privilege.

Fun reading.

Oracle's Virtual Play

Of course, you probably saw Oracle's announcement regarding their support of Xen, the hypervisor alternative now part of most Linux distros.

Monday morning, I hopped on a plane for Hong Kong.  When I got off, my blackberry immediately filled up with all manner of commentary about this announcement.  Of course, I couldn't sleep last night, so I had plenty of time to think about things.

And, I'll tell you -- I went from being curious, to being amused, to being downright disappointed.

Dell, EqualLogic and EMC

By now, you've probably not only seen the news, but you've also probably seen lots of commentary on Dell's recent acquisition.

I decided to wait a bit before posting my thoughts on this topic, just to allow for some contemplative reflection.

In many ways, Dell's move does not come as much of a surprise.  I think the impact of this move will have a more significant affect on Dell's well-known competitors far more than it could potentially impact EMC over the long run. 

So let the speculation begin!

Of Scalable File Systems and HPC ...

One of the more interesting new discussions in our industry is around HPC (high performance computing) environments, and the inevitable discussion of how will you get to your information?

Lots of vendors piling in.  It's getting pretty noisy.  I wrote a bit earlier on NAS evolution, but this is a more focused discussion.

What most people don't know is that EMC is pretty active in this space, and we've got more than few showcase examples of how our thinking (and our products) apply.

Desperate Times In Storage Land?

It's been a busy week -- everyone wakes from their summer torpor, and we're off to the races.

A lot of interesting little things happened this week, nothing major, but I think there's a theme in here somewhere.

Let's see if I can connect the dots.

Storage Scorecard

If you're a sports fan, you know how important the score is -- it's the first question anyone asks.

The storage industry is incredibly competitive.  That's good for everyone -- competition brings out the best in vendors, and customers win every time.

I wanted to take a moment and recap Gartner's recent storage industry scorecard analysis.  There's a new pecking order showing up, and -- if you're close to the storage industry -- you can see positions shifting around.

And that raises some interesting questions ...

Free Lessons In VMware For Storage and Infrastructure Vendors

I've really enjoyed watching the VMware IPO, and seeing all of EMC's traditional (and newer) competitors pile in to the VMware opportunity.

It's also even more fun to watch them try to pitch their old wares into the new world without having some basic understanding about how things fundamentally change when you really look at what server virtualization does to your infrastructure.

Is it that they haven't figured it out yet?  Or, maybe they're suspecting that it's a bit different, but haven't fully grasped the full implications just yet ...

Sorry, there's no way I can avoid getting a bit sarcastic in this post, so my apologies in advance.  I'm in therapy about this issue, but it isn't working well ...

Today, I'm going to offer a few insights to my brethren in the storage and infrastructure industry with a few examples on how some things change once you really understand what's going on here. 

Those of you in the biz, you may want to drop a note to your marketing department that's churning out PDFs and webcasts to hold up a just a bit until you figure out how you want to handle some of these issues.

Otherwise you're going to have to answer some pretty hard questions. 

Consider this a preview of the server virtualization pop quiz for 2008.

That Sinking Feeling

Like many people, I fly way too much.

Occasionally, the plane will be power climbing, out of the airport, and the pilot for some reason will pull back sharply on the throttle.  I'll go immediately from dozing to a very alert state, wondering "what's next?"

Network Appliance has just had such an experience. 

And I bet more than a few people are wondering "what's next?"

So Why Don't Server Vendors Focus More On Storage?

I was in a briefing today, and a customer asked an interesting question.

She wanted to know why it seemed like the big server guys (IBM, Sun, HP) were only half-heartedly going after the storage market, and weren't investing in storage technology, services and support the same way that focused players (e.g. EMC and others) were.

We ended up talking about different aspects of the industry, and I guess they found it pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share it here.

Does Anyone Take The SPC Seriously?

The Storage Performance Council has been around since 2002.  Its stated goal is to provide independent cost/performance metrics for storage arrays.

But has it achieved its stated goals?  And does anyone (other than a few vendors) take them seriously?

We occasionally get asked why we don't participate, and there are some good reasons -- none of them particularly sinister (apologies in advance to consipiracy theorists everywhere!)

But why is there no good independent performance metric for storage? 

And why do some vendors (like IBM) continue to insist that the test (and their participation) is relevant?

It's an interesting perspective on the storage industry, and how simple things can get really complex once you look at them.

Green Data Center Goes Marketing Mainstream

I'm watching with mixed emotions as more and more vendors start to describe their products as addressing challenges associated with reducing power and cooling in the data center.

On one hand, clearly it's a monumental challenge -- and opportunity.

On the other hand, I'm starting to see vendors with thinner and thinner claims start to add this message to their marketing drumbeat.

That's not a good thing.

Why XAM Is Very, Very Cool

Maybe you saw this obscure news about an even more obscure industry standard: XAM.

Although I think I've met my quota for blog posts this week (4 so far), I just couldn't resist doing one more, and -- besides -- I'll be travelling next week.

So, what's the big deal here?  And why are certain customers watching this one very closely?

Let me try one of my infamous over-simplified explanations.

My Stack Vs. Your Stack

So, a customer stopped me cold the other day with a very pointed question.  I love when that happens.

Here's what he said:

"Look, every major player in IT is building their stack: EMC, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, SAP, and so on.  What makes you think your stack is the better stack?"

Brutally candid, but a really, really good question.

So here's what I said.

EMC and Wipro

Perhaps you saw the announcement today.

EMC and Wipro have signed up to a pretty extensive agreeement. 

It's all there (or will be soon) --

• Technology enablement -- making sure that Wipro is fully enabled EMC technology
• Solution development -- identifying a few promising areas where we jointly invest and jointly sell.
• Go to market -- figuring out how to line up Wipro's value proposition and EMC's value proposition in chosen markets.

But press releases never tell the story behind the story.   And, as usual, there's more than meets the eye.

Lessons In Storage Marketing

I've been involved in the marketing end of the business on-and-off for many years at EMC.

I've probably made every mistake in the book at one time or another (including some very infamous ones), but -- probably because I never got fired -- I ended up accumulating some useful wisdom about how to avoid certain egregious mistakes.

Based on what I've seen over the last few weeks, I thought it'd be interesting to share my take on a few gaffes I've seen.

Good Technology In Good Hands

EMC has made a lot of acquisitions over the last few years. 

Some get a lot of visibility -- VMware, Documentum, RSA, etc. -- but there have been many others that have turned out to be shining success stories in their own right - just a bit overshadowed by the big names.

A lot of people think that acquiring companies is hard work.  They're right.

But exploiting the full value of what you've acquired -- that's really hard work.  And there's a general nay-sayer crowd that handicaps each and every acquisition EMC makes, including today's.

Yes, we've had a few bumps, but -- in general -- I think EMC has done an exemplary job of making acquisitions that deliver on Joe Tucci's famous "two-fer" comment: look for acquisitions that get us into interesting new parts of the market, and at the same time make the core stronger.

As one example, let me share with you the story of Kashya (now RecoverPoint) as an example of what happens behind the scenes when good technology ends up in good hands.

More Virtual Thoughts On Storage

Saw a pretty good piece on www.searchstorage.com where Beth Pariseau interviewed Jay Kidd at NetApp about file and storage virtualization.  (BTW, good article, Beth!)

Jay offered his views on a number of topics, including aspects of storage virtualization.

Of course, Jay's views were colored a bit by the NetApp perspective.

Not that it would ever happen to me .. ;-)

But I thought there was a strategic side to the discussion that was worthy of exposing.  I think it shows a contrast in views between two technology companies.

Cisco and NeoPath

Shock!  Outrage!  Horror!  Disbelief!

That seemed to be the industry's reaction to Cisco's announcement (post acquisition) that they were going to end-of-life NeoPath.

You would have thought that the Earth had shifted into a new orbit.

I wasn't surprised at the news.  I was surprised at the reaction. 

Here's why ...

Q4 Storage Scorecard

The storage industry is fortunate enough to have pretty good scorekeeper -- IDC.   They track revenue and capacity by vendor across several categories and geographies.

Every quarter, they use publicly available information to infer who sold what in what segment.  And if you do a lot of OEM business, well, that revenue goes to the company that sold it, not the company that made it.

Now, like anything else, IDC is not perfect.  Sometimes they infer something wrong, and then there's the endless vendor quibbling  about categories -- but generally speaking, they're right much more often than otherwise.

And if you're in the heart of the storage business, you spend a lot of time looking at IDC data.

Why do I think this is interesting?

Because it shows where customers are putting their most valuable asset -- information.  It's a trust thing, in my mind.

And -- strategically -- if you believe that information infrastructure starts with where information lives (e.g. storage), well, then, there are long-term implications down the road for who sold what, aren't there?

So let's dive in and see what happened in Q4 of this year.

Microsoft and EMC Tackle Next-Gen Service Management

Perhaps you saw the announcement at Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) between Microsoft and EMC. 

If you missed it, the announcement is here.  And some nice press coverage here and here.

But is there more to the picture than meets the eye? 

I think this particular announcement carries more weight -- on several levels -- than the ordinary technology mash-up.  See if you agree.

So what is this all about?

Much Ado About Nothing

In some corners of our industry, technology discussions can turn into interesting studies of human behavior.

Even though EMC’s capabilities span a very broad range these days, we still get involved in our fair share of storage technology debates.  Some are relevant, others aren’t.

And, since I once was a crusty, knuckle-dragging storage guy, occasionally I feel compelled to wade into certain areas.

And today, we talk a bit about disk drive failure rates.

My Way Or The Highway

Some of us in the technology community get pretty passionate about our views.  That’s a good thing, right?

But we’re all better served by – at least attempting – a somewhat dispassionate view that there are reasonable alternatives to a given issue.

We, as vendors, should state the problem, talk about alternatives, and then go on to why we think our particular answer is better than the other guys.

Customers should ideally be exposed to the thinking, and not just shown the end result. 

I saw a pointed response from IBM regarding Hu Yoshida’s post regarding storage virtualization. 

Of course, I don’t agree with Hu.  Going farther, I don’t think many people outside of HDS would share his particular point of view.

But the real issue here – in my mind – is a framing of the discussion, rather stating the answer.  Nothing is cut-and-dried in IT, even though we would like it to be.

That’s why we have real smart people working in IT.  If it was obvious, they wouldn’t need us, right?

To RAID 6 Or Not To RAID 6?

In our little storage blogging world, a spirited (yet ultimately friendly) spat has broken out between Storagezilla and Ruptured Monkey over the issue of RAID 6.

[note: where do they come up with these blog names?  I am most desperately uncool by comparison …]

I’m not going to wade in here on the pros and cons, but what I am going to do is step back a bit and talk about how EMC viewed the situation, and what we did about it.

It’s an interesting behind-the-scenes story in the contrast between IT vendors providing features, and IT vendors solving problems.

EMC Information Infrastructure for Microsoft

I think Microsoft technologies are poised to play an increasingly important role in the enterprise in the next few years.  Argue with me all you want, but I see it every day in most customer shops.

As you might know, my day job at EMC is running technology alliances, and one of the best partnerships we’ve ever formed is with Microsoft. 

Sometimes Microsoft gets a bad rap, which I think is unjustified.  Up and down the organization, they’re some of the brightest, straight-shooting and customer-focused people in the IT industry I’ve ever met.

And we’re doing great things with them across the board.  I’m extremely proud about what both companies have accomplished together.

About a week ago, I was asked by a customer “what is EMC doing with Microsoft?”.  I think he was looking for the 60 second response.

Well, it turned into a hour-long discussion that went all over the landscape, and I thought it worthy of an extended post.  I hope you agree …

NetApp: Bad Marketing vs. Good Marketing

All is fair in love, war and marketing.  Or is it?

Do we, as vendors, have a responsibility to our customers and the marketplace that when we make a claim, that it is generically true, and customers get the benefit we promise?

I believe so. 

I believe so strongly, in fact, that I’m taking it upon myself to call out others who may not subscribe to this particular world view.

Benchmarketing Too Far?

For those of you who are trivia buffs, you’ll probably remember the sad story of Radithor.  Shortly after radioactivity was discovered in the early 1900s, the market was flooded with radioactive patent medicines that made all sorts of claims. 

 

Radithor was made by adding a small amount of radium to distilled water.  Nasty stuff.  But it was sold as a cure for many ills.

 

In the case of Radithor, the slow horrible death of a man who drank hundreds of bottles contributed to the establishment of FDA, which – at a high level – ensured that medicines did no harm, and hopefully did what they said on the label.

 

This turned out to be the worst form of quackery.  People who had a specific problem turned to these solutions for relief; not only didn’t they get better, they had new problems.

 

Today, I’m going to take the gloves off and look at what I consider a particularly egregious example of benchmarketing in the storage industry. 

 

Not only does it not do what it says on the label, you could end up far worse than you started off.  You can arrive at your own conclusions as to whether or not I’m overreacting.

   

NetApp Gateway and IBM SVC -- When More Isn't Necessarily Better

I try to refrain from poking at other vendors in my work, and in this blog.  But sometimes, just sometimes, you hear about something that's so wacky, it just deserves a moment of appreciation by all of us in the industry.

I refer to the recent announcement that the NetApp gateways were now qualified for use with IBM's SVC.  See here and here.  One way to accurately describe the announcement would be that you now can buy one storage virtualization device (the NetApp gateway) on top of another (IBM's SVC).

I don't think we'll get a replay of the Sony PS3 situation with long lines at retailers near you.  So why did they do this?

Microsoft and Novell -- A Good Thing

I'm probably going to get blasted from the radical Linux fundamentalist movement for this one. 

But I honestly believe that -- from a customer perspective -- Microsoft and Novell have forged a very productive construct that bodes well for corporate IT users.

Oracle Open World

I'm not a fan of large industry trade shows.  Maybe it's my attention deficit disorder, but after a few hours, I'm usually bushed and looking for something else to do.  And there's only so much SWAG and mindless pitches you can listen to before you start going bonkers.

The most recent Oracle Open World is a good counterexample.  The Oracle people have built this event into a premier inidustry happening, and less of a vendor shindig.  I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts to the general mix.