Category: convergence

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Modernizing data protection with certainty

Speaking of and about modernizing data protection, back in June I was invited to be a keynote presenter on industry trends and perspectives at a series of five dinner events (Boston, Chicago, Palo Alto, Houston and New York City) sponsored by Quantum (that is a disclosure btw).

backup, restore, BC, DR and archiving

The theme of the dinner events was an engaging discussion around modernizing data protection with certainty along with clouds, virtualization and related topics. Quantum and one of their business partner resellers started the event with introductions followed by an interactive discussion by myself, followed by David Chappa (@davidchapa ) who ties the various themes with what Quantum is doing along with some of their customer success stories.

Themes and examples for these events build on my book Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking including:

  • Rethinking how, when, where and why data is being protected
  • Big data, little data and big backup issues and techniques
  • Archive, backup modernization, compression, dedupe and storage tiering
  • Service level agreements (SLA) and service level objectives (SLO)
  • Recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO)
  • Service alignment and balancing needs vs. wants, cost vs. risk
  • Protecting virtual, cloud and physical environments
  • Stretching your available budget to do more without compromise
  • People, processes, products and procedures

Quantum is among other industry leaders with multiple technology and solution offerings for addressing different aspects of data footprint reduction and data protection modernization. These include for physical, virtual and cloud environments along with traditional tape, disk based, compression, dedupe, archive, big data, hardware, software and management tools. A diverse group of attendees have been at the different events including enterprise and SMB, public, private and government across different sectors.

Following are links to some blog posts that covered first series of events along with some of the specific themes and discussion points from different cities:

Via ITKE: The New Realities of Data Protection
Via ITKE: Looking For Certainty In The Cloud
Via ITKE: Success Stories in Data Protection: Cloud virtualization
Via ITKE: Practical Solutions for Data Protection Challenges
Via David Chappas blog

If you missed attending any of the above events, more dates are being added in August and September including stops in Cleveland, Raleigh, Atlanta, Washington DC, San Diego, Connecticut and Philadelphia with more details here.

Ok, nuff said for now, hope to see you at one of the upcoming events.

Cheers
Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

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All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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NAD recommends Oracle discontinue certain Exadata performance claims

I Received the following press release in my inbox today from the National Advertising Division (NAD) recommending that Oracle stop making certain performance claims about Exadata after a complaint from IBM.

Oracle Exadata

In case you are not familiar with ExaData, it is a database machine or storage appliance that only supports Oracle database systems (learn more here). Oracle having bought Sun microsystems a few years back moved from being a software vendor that competed with other vendors software solutions including those from IBM while running on hardware from Dell, HP and IBM among others. Now that Oracle is in the hardware business, while you will still find Oracle software products running on their competitors hardware (servers and storage), Oracle is also more aggressively competing with those same partners, particularly IBM.

Hmm, to quote Scooby Doo: Rut Roh!

Looks like IBM complained to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Advertising Division (NAD) that resulted in the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) making their recommendation below (more about NAD and ASRC can be found here). Based on a billboard sign that I saw while riding from JFK airport into New York City last week, I would not be surprised if a company with two initials that start with an H and end with a P were to file a similar complaint.

I Wonder if the large wall size Oracle advertisement that used to be in the entry way to the white plains (IATA:HPN) airport (e.g. in IBM’s backyard) welcoming you to the terminal as you get off the airplanes is still there?

The following is the press release that I received:

For Immediate Release
Contact: Linda Bean
212.705.0129

NAD Finds Oracle Took Necessary Action in Discontinuing Comparative Performance Claims for Exadata; Oracle to Appeal NAD Decision

New York, NY – July 24,  2012 –TheNational Advertising Division has recommended that Oracle Corporation discontinue certain comparative product-performance claims for the company’s Exadata database machines, following a challenge by International Business Machines Corporation. Oracle said it would voluntarily discontinue the challenged claims, but noted that it would appeal NADs decision to the National Advertising Review Board.

The advertising claims at issue appeared in a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal and included the following:

  • “Exadata 20x Faster … Replaces IBM Again”
  • “Giant European Retailer Moves Databases from IBM Power to Exadata … Runs 20 Times Faster”

NAD also considered whether the advertising implied that all Oracle Exadata systems are twenty times faster than all IBM Power systems.

The advertisement featured the image of an Oracle Exadata system, along with the statement: “Giant European Retailer Moves Databases from IBM Power to Exadata Runs 20 Times Faster.” The advertisement also offered a link to the Oracle website: “For more details oracle.com/EuroRetailer.” 

IBM argued that the “20x Faster” claim makes overly broad references to “Exadata” and “IBM Power,” resulting in a misleading claim, which the advertiser’s evidence does not support.  In particular, the challenger argued that by referring to the brand name “IBM Power” without qualification, Oracle was making a broad claim about the entire IBM Power systems line of products. 

The advertiser, on the other hand, argued that the advertisement represented a case study, not a line claim, and noted that the sophisticated target audience would understand that the advertisement is based on the experience of one customer – the “Giant European Retailer” referenced in the advertisement.

In a NAD proceeding, the advertiser is obligated to support all reasonable interpretations of its advertising claims, not just the message it intended to convey.   In the absence of reliable consumer perception evidence, NAD uses its experienced judgment to determine what implied messages, if any, are conveyed by an advertisement.   When evaluating the message communicated by an advertising claim, NAD will examine the claims at issue in the context of the entire advertisement in which they appear.

In this case, NAD concluded that while the advertiser may have intended to convey the message that in one case study a particular Exadata system was up to 20 times faster when performing two particular functions than a particular IBM Power system, Oracle’s general references to “Exadata” and “IBM Power,” along with the bold unqualified headline “Exadata 20x Faster Replaces IBM Again,” conveyed a much broader message.

NAD determined that at least one reasonable interpretation of the challenged advertisement is that all – or a vast majority – of Exadata systems consistently perform 20 times faster in all or many respects than all – or a vast majority – of IBM Power systems. NAD found that the message was not supported by the evidence in the record, which consisted of one   particular comparison of one consumer’s specific IBM Power system to a specific Exadata System. 

NAD further determined that the disclosure provided on the advertiser’s website was not sufficient to limit the broad message conveyed by the “20x Faster” claim. More importantly, NAD noted that even if Oracle’s website disclosure was acceptable – and had appeared clearly and conspicuously in the challenged advertisement – it would still be insufficient because an advertiser cannot use a disclosure to cure an otherwise false claim.

NAD noted that Oracle’s decision to permanently discontinue the claims at issue was necessary and proper.

Oracle, in its advertiser’s statement, said it was “disappointed with the NAD’s decision in this matter, which it believes is unduly broad and will severely limit the ability to run truthful comparative advertising, not only for Oracle but for others in the commercial hardware and software industry.”

Oracle noted that it would appeal all of NAD’s findings in the matter.

 

###

NAD’s inquiry was conducted under NAD/CARU/NARB Procedures for the Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising.  Details of the initial inquiry, NAD’s decision, and the advertiser’s response will be included in the next NAD/CARU Case Report.

About Advertising Industry Self-Regulation:  The Advertising Self-Regulatory Council establishes the policies and procedures for advertising industry self-regulation, including the National Advertising Division (NAD), Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), National Advertising Review Board (NARB), Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) and Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program (Accountability Program.) The self-regulatory system is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Self-regulation is good for consumers. The self-regulatory system monitors the marketplace, holds advertisers responsible for their claims and practices and tracks emerging issues and trends. Self-regulation is good for advertisers. Rigorous review serves to encourage consumer trust; the self-regulatory system offers an expert, cost-efficient, meaningful alternative to litigation and provides a framework for the development of a self-regulatory to emerging issues.

To learn more about supporting advertising industry self-regulation, please visit us at: www.asrcreviews.org.

 

 

Linda Bean l Director, Communications,
Advertising Self-Regulatory Council

Tel: 212.705.0129
Cell: 908.812.8175
lbean@asrc.bbb.org

112 Madison Ave.
3rd Fl.
New York, NY
10016

 

Ok, Oracle is no stranger to benchmark and performance claims controversy having amassed several decades of experience. Anybody remember the silver bullet database test from late 80s early 90s when Oracle set a record performance except that they never committed the writes to disk?

Something tells me that Oracle and Uncle Larry (e.g. Larry Ellison who is not really my uncle) will treat this as any kind of press or media coverage is good and probably will issue something like IBM must be worried if they have to go to the BBB.

Will a complaint which I’m sure is not the fist to be lodged with the BBB against Oracle deter customers, or be of more use to IBM sales and their partners in deals vs. Oracle?

What’s your take?

Is this much ado about nothing, a filler for a slow news or discussion day, a break from talking about VMware acquisition of Nicira or VMware CEO management changes? Perhaps this is an alternative to talking about the CEO of SSD vendor STEC being charged with insider trading, or something other than Larry Ellison buying an Hawaiian island (IMHO he could have gotten a better deal buying Greece), or is this something that Oracle will need to take seriously?

Ok, nuff said for now

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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Give HP storage some love and short strokin

Server and StorageIO industry trends and perspective DAS

Following up from my last post over at InfoStor about metrics that matter, here is a link to a new piece that I did on storage vendors benchmarking and related topics. This new post looked at an storage performance council (SPC1) benchmark that HP did with their P10000 (e.g. 3PAR) storage system under assertions by some in the industry that they were short stroking to meet better performance.

I’m surprised some creative technical marketer, blogger or prankster has yet to rework Clarence Carters (e.g. Dr. CC) iconic song into something about storage performance and capacity short strokin.


Ok, nuff said before I get a visit from the HP truth squads, in the meantime, give HP a hug and some love if so inclined.

Cheers Gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

twitter @storageio

All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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Announcing SAS SANs for Dummies book, LSI edition

There is a new (free) book that I’m a co-author of along Bruce Grieshaber and Larry Jacob (both of LSI) along with foreword by Harry Mason of LSI and President of the SCSI Trade Association titled SAS SANs for Dummies compliments of LSI.

SAS SANs for Dummies, LSI Edition

This new book (ebook and print hard copy) looks at Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and how it can be used beyond traditional direct attached storage (DAS) configurations for support various types of storage mediums including SSD, HDD and tape. These configuration options include as entry-level SAN with SAS switches for small clusters or server virtualization, or as shared DAS as well as being a scale out back-end solution for NAS, object, cloud and big data storage solutions.

Here is the table of contents (TOC) of SAS SANs for Dummies

Chapter 1: Data storage challenges

  • Storage Growth Demand Drivers
  • Recognizing Challenges
  • Solutions and Opportunities

    • Chapter 2: Storage Area Networks

  • Introducing Storage Area Networks
  • Moving from Dedicated Internal to Shared Storage

    • Chapter 3: SAS Basics

  • Introducing the Basics of SAS
  • How SAS Functions
  • Components of SAS
  • SAS Target Devices
  • SAS for SANs

    • Chapter 4: SAS Usage Scenarios

  • Understanding SAS SANs Usage
  • Shared SAS SANs Scenarios including:
    • SAS in HPC environments
    • Big data and big bandwidth
    • Database, e-mail, back-office
    • NAS and object storage servers
    • Cloud, wen and high-density
    • Server virtualization

    Chapter 5: Advanced SAS Topics

  • The SAS Physical Layer
  • Choosing SAS Cabling
  • Using SAS Switch Zoning
  • SAS HBA Target Mode

    • Chapter 6: Nine Common Questions

  • Can You Interconnect Switches?
  • What Is SAS Cable Distance?
  • How Many Servers Can Be In a SAS SAN?
  • How Do You Manage SAS Zones?
  • How Do You Configure SAS for HA?
  • How Does SAS Zoning Compare to LUN Mapping?
  • Who Has SAS Solutions?
  • How Do SAS SANs Compare?
  • Where Can You Learn More?

    • Chapter 7: Next Steps

  • SAS Going Forward
  • Next Steps
  • Great Take Away’s

    • Regardless of if you are looking to use SAS as a primary SAN interface, or leverage it for DAS or implementing back-end storage for big-data, NAS, object, cloud or other types of scalable storage solutions, check out and get your free copy of SAS SANs for Dummies here compliments of LSI.

    SAS SANs for Dummies, LSI Edition

    Click here to ask your free copy of SAS SANs for Dummies compliments of LSI, tell them Greg from StorageIO sent you and enjoy the book.

    Ok, nuff said.

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    How can direct attached storage (DAS) make a comeback if it never left?

    Server and StorageIO industry trend and perspective DAS

    Have you seen or heard the theme that Direct Attached Storage (DAS), either dedicated or shared, internal or external is making a comeback?

    Wait, if something did not go away, how can it make a comeback?

    IMHO it is as simple as for the past decade or so, DAS has been overshadowed by shared networked storage including switched SAS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) and FC over Ethernet (FCoE) based block storage area networks (SAN) and file based (NFS and Windows SMB/CIFS) network attached storage (NAS) using IP and Ethernet networks. This has been particularly true by most of the independent storage vendors who have become focused on networked storage (SAN or NAS) solutions.

    However some of the server vendors have also jumped into the deep end of the storage pool with their enthusiasm for networked storage, even though they still sell a lot of DAS including internal dedicated, along with external dedicated and shared storage.

    Server and StorageIO industry trend and perspective DAS

    The trend for DAS storage has evolved with the interfaces and storage mediums including from parallel SCSI and IDE to SATA and more recently 3Gbs and 6Gbs SAS (with 12Gbs in first lab trials). Similarly the storage mediums include a mix of fast 10K and 15K hard disk drives (HDD) along with high-capacity HDDs and ultra-high performance solid state devices (SSD) moving from 3.5 to 2.5 inch form factors.

    While there has been a lot of industry and vendor marketing efforts around networked storage (e.g. SAN and NAS), DAS based storage was over shadowed so it should not be a surprise that those focused on SAN and NAS are surprised to hear DAS is alive and well. Not only is DAS alive and well, it’s also becoming an important scaling and convergence topic for adding extra storage to appliances as well as servers including those for scale out, big data, cloud and high density not to mention high performance and high productivity computing.

    Server and StorageIO industry trend and perspective DAS

    Consequently its becoming ok to talk about DAS again. Granted you might get some peer pressure from your trend setting or trend following friends to get back on the networked storage bandwagon. Keep this in mind, take a look at some of the cool trend setting big data and little data (database) appliances, backup, dedupe and archive appliances, cloud and scale out NAS and object storage systems among others and will likely find DAS on the back-end. On a smaller scale, or in high-density rack deployments in large cloud or similar environments you may also find DAS including switched shared SAS.

    Does that mean SANs are dead?
    No, not IMHO despite what some vendors marketers and their followers will claim which is ironic given how some of them were leading the DAS is dead campaign in favor of iSCSI or FC or NAS a few years ago. However simply comparing DAS to SAN or NAS in a competing way is like comparing apples to oranges, instead, look at how and where they can complement and enable each other. In other words, different tools for various tasks, various storage and interfaces for different needs.

    Thus IMHO DAS never left or went anywhere per say, it just was not fashionable or cool to talk about until now as it is cool and trend to discuss it again.

    Ok, nuff said for now.

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

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    Dell is buying Quest software, not the phone company Qwest

    Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)

    For those not familiar with Quest, they are a software company not to be confused with the telephone communications company formerly known as Qwest (aka now known as centurylink).

    Both Dell and Quest have been on software related acquisition initiatives that past few years with Quest having purchased vKernel, Vizoncore (vRanger virtualization backup), BakBone (who had acquire Alavarii and Asempra) for traditional backup and data protection among others. Not to be out done, as well as purchasing Quest, Dell has also more recently bought Appassure (Disclosure: StorageIOblog site sponsor) for data protection, Sonicwall and Wyse in addition to some other recent purchases (ASAP, Boomi, Compellent, Exanet, EqualLogic, Force10, InsightOne, KACE, Ocarina, Perot, RNA and Scalent among others).

    What does this mean?
    Dell is expanding the scope of their business with more products (hardware, software), solution bundles, services and channel partnering opportunities Some of the software tools and focus areas that Quest brings to the Dell table or portfolio include:

    Database management (Oracle, SQLserver)
    Data protection (virtual and physical backup, replication, bc, dr)
    Performance monitoring (DCIM and IRM) of applications and infrastructure
    User workspace management (application delivery)
    Windows server management (migrate and manage, AD, exchange, sharepoint)
    Identify and access management (security, compliance, privacy)

    What does Dell get by spending over $2B USD on quest?

  • Additional software titles or product
  • More software developers for their Software group
  • Sales people to help promote, partner and sell software solutions
  • Create demand pull for other Dell products and services via software
  • Increase its partner reach via existing Quest VARs and business partners
  • Extend the size of the Dell software and intellectual property (IP) portfolio
  • New revenue streams that compliment existing products and lines of business
  • Potential for better rate of return on some of its $12B USD in cash or equivalence

    Is this a good move for Dell?
    Yes for the above reasons

    • Is there a warning to this for Dell?
    Yes, they need to execute, keep the Quest team focused along with their other teams on the respective partners, products and market opportunities while expanding into new areas. Dell needs to also leverage Quest to further its cause in creating trust, confidence and strategic relationships with channel partners to reach new markets in different geographies. In addition, Dell needs to articulate its strategy and positioning of the various solutions to avoid products being perceived as competing vs. complimenting each other.

    Additional Dell related links:
    Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)
    Dell Storage Forum 2011 revisited
    Dude, is Dell doing a disk deal again with Compellent?
    Data footprint reduction (Part 2): Dell, IBM, Ocarina and Storwize
    Post Holiday IT Shopping Bargains, Dell Buying Exanet?
    Dell Will Buy Someone, However Not Brocade (At least for now)

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)

    Dell Storage Customer Advisory Panel (CAP)

    Recently I was asked by Dell to moderate and host their North America storage customer advisory panel (CAP) session (twitter #storagecap) that followed their 2012 storage forum (see comments about 2011 storage forum here) event in Boston (Disclosure Dell covered my trip to Boston).

    This was an interesting event in many ways because it was a diverse group some of whom were long-time EqualLogic and Compellent (both before and post acquisition) customers of various size or customers of Dell who have yet to buy storage from them.

    Click on above image for video feed

    Beyond the diversity of types of customers and their relationship with Dell, what also made this event interesting was that it was live streamed with professional produced video and audio in addition to twitter and other social media coverage. However what made the event even more interesting IMHO was the fact that being a live event (watch replay here) in video with audio as well as on twitter, the attendees were urged to speak freely with conversation among themselves providing feedback and commentary for Dell.

    Sure there were songs of praise when and were deserved, however unlike some made for social media vendor events that tend to be closer to sales pitches, this event also included some tough love feedback and comments for Dell, their products, services and events planner.


    Dell Storage CAP illustrators aka @ThinkLink

    Oh, did I mention that other than some members from the Dell social media team (@dell_storage) who were in the room to help facilitate and coordinate the event itself, the real discussions were free and independent of Dell employees (other than to remind not to avoid going into NDA land while live on the video and audio feed). Dell had @ThinkLink doing live illustrations capturing as images the discussion themes, topics and points of interests during the events that you can see examples of in the following images.


    Dell Flickr images from the Storage CAP session

    Kudos to Dell for having the courage, conviction and confidence to have a customer advisory panel event live streamed, that also allowed the attendees to speak their mind free of a script or talking points guide. The session included having each participant taking a turn of putting themselves in the general managers chair and saying what they would do, why, and how they would address customers and prospects.
    After all, its one thing to sit in the cheap seats, playing arm-chair quarterback saying what you want, it’s another saying why you need it, what the priority and impact are or would be and how to get the message to the customer. Some of the topics covered included Appassure for data protection, Compellent, EqualLogic and other recent acquisitions, products, service, support and community forums.

    Thanks to all who participated including @ThinkLink (illustrators), Dell Storage social media team (@dell_storage), Alison Krause (@AlisonDell), Gina Rosenthal (@gminks), Michelle Richard (@meesh_says) and particularly the participants Pete Koehler (@petergavink), Roger Lund (@rogerlund), Luigi Danakos (@nerdblurt), Dan Marbes (@danmarbes), Jeff Hengesbach (@jeffhengesbach), Steve Mickeler (@shmick), Ed Aractingi (@earactingi) and Dennis Heinle (@dheinle).

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    EMCworld 2012: Trust and marketing, can they coexist?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Recently while at EMCworld in Las Vegas (Thanks btw to EMC who covered coach airfare and 3 nights hotel) I had the opportunity along with group of other industry analysts and advisors to have a series of small group meeting sessions with key EMC leadership.

    EMC world

    These sessions included time with Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Joe Tucci, Chairmen of VCE Michael Capellas (who is also on the Cisco Board of Directors), President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services Howard Elias, President and Chief Operating Officer, EMC Information Infrastructure Products Pat Gelsinger, and Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Jeremy Burton.

    Joe Tucci is always fun to listen and engage with in small groups and conveys a cordial confidence when you meet face to face. Howard Elias who is now heading up the services business talked about walking the talk with services, public and private cloud including what EMC is doing internally. Michael Capellas had some good insight into what he is doing with VCE, along with his role on the Cisco BOD. Pat Gelsinger had some interesting points however seemed a bit more reserved than in earlier sessions. Jeremy Burton who is normally associated with the effective marketing company or everything movie campaigns at EMC did not use any backdrops, visual aids, theatrics or Vegas style entertainment during his session.

    Of the above-mentioned executives, the one that impressed me the most, and talking with other analysts/advisors had similar perspectives was Jeremy Burton. I have seen and heard him talk before in live and virtual venues along with what he is doing to focus EMC messaging and themes.

    A common comment and theme in talking with other analysts and advisors was that in five minutes, Jeremy did more to advance, clarify, articulate and explain who EMC is, what they are doing now and for the future.

    Image courtesy of EMC.com

    Trust was one of the themes of the EMCworld event as it pertains to collaborating with vendors and service providers as well as consultants, advisors and others. Trust is also important for going to the cloud on a public or private basis. It is easy to talk about trust however, it is also something that is earned and is important to keep up and protect. Normally given some of the stigma associated with marketing and or sales, trust too often becomes a punch line or term tossed around with skepticism, cynicism or empty promises. The reason I bring trust up in this discussion was that in Jeremy’s interaction with those in the room, whether others realized it or not, he was working on planting the seeds and establishing the basis for trust.

    Does that mean there is automatic trust now in anything that EMC or their marketing organization says or more so than what heard from other organizations? Perhaps some will automatically take what is heard and go with that as gospel however, they may be doing that already. For others who are skeptical by default and do their homework, analysis, research and other related tasks, they may be more likely to give the benefit of the doubt vs. automatically questioning everything looking for multiple confirmations and added fact checking.

    As for me, I generally take what any vendor or their pundits say with a grain of salt giving benefit of doubt where applicable unless trust has been previously impacted. In the case of EMC, I generally take what they say with a grain of salt. However, a level of trust and confidence can make validating what they say sometimes easier than with others. This is in part due to knowing where to go internally for details and information including NDA based material and the good job their analyst relations team and other group do on building and keep up relationships.

    Does this mean I like EMC more or less than other vendors? It means there is a level of trust, communication, relationship, contact, interaction and access to resources with EMC that might be more or less than with other vendors.  Disclosure EMC along with some companies they have acquired have been past clients.

    Now back to Jeremy.

    What impressed me the most was while other executives were engaging to different degrees, when I asked Jeremy how he and EMC balances entertainment (videos and movies, theatrics), education (expanding knowledge of EMC solutions, technology advancement) and being engaging (not just sales calls, social media, golfing or other in person activities) to drive business economics his response included all three of those aspects.

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Ok, I know, some of you should be saying that is the job and role of a marketing person to be an effective communicator which I would agree, however why don’t more marketers do a more effective job of what they do?

    In other words, Jeremy educated by sharing what and why they are doing certain things, Jeremy engaged with the entire audience while answering my question however not singular responding to me, he also entertained with some of his answers while also keeping them to the point, not rambling on. Afterwards I had a few minutes to talk one on one with Jeremy without the handlers or others and I can say it was refreshing and as is too of the case with marketers, there is trust.

    That does not mean I will take anything verbatim or follow the scripts or other things the truth squads want preached or handed out from EMC, Jeremy or any other vendor for that matter.

    I can say that in the few minutes up close and in a smaller setting, EMC has a secret weapon who can do more to build and convey trust and that is Jeremy Burton, hope I am not wrong ;).

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    NetApp on rough ground, or a diamond in the rough?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    In case you missed it, NetApp announced their most recent quarterly earnings a few weeks ago which in themselves were not bad. However what some of their competition jumping up and down for joy while others are scratching their heads is the forward-looking guidance given by NetApp.

    NetApp can be seen as being on rough ground given their forward-looking guidance over the next year which could be seen as either very conservative, or an admission that they are not growing as fast as some of their competitors are challenging them.

    Reading between the lines, looking at various financial and other resources in addition to factoring in technology items, there is more to NetApp then meets the eye and current stock price or product portfolio.

    For example, NetApp is sitting on over $4 Billion USD cash that they could use for an acquisition, buying back stock, launching a major sales and marketing initiative to expand into new or adjacent markets or other activities. Speaking of acquisitions, NetApp has done some in the past including Spinnaker, which is now integrated with Ontap (e.g. clustering), Topio, Decru (security encryption) and Onaro (DCIM and IRM management software tools). More recently, NetApp has acquired Bycast (archiving and policy storage management software), Akorri (capacity management and DCIM and IRM software) and Engenio. NetApp is also maintaining good margins via both direct, channel and OEM activities while launching new products such as the channel and SMB focused FAS 2220.

    Its arguable depending upon your point of view (or who you for or are a fan of) if NetApp has all the right product pieces now, in the works, or on their radar for acquisitions. Assuming that NetApp has the pieces, they also need to move beyond selling simply what is on the truck or what is safe and comfortable or perhaps easy to sell. This is not to say that NetApp is not being effective in selling what they have and pushing the envelope, however keeping in mind who their main competitor is, the old sales saying of being able to sell ice to an Eskimo comes to mind.

    Two companies on parralel tracks offset by time: EMC and NetApp

    In the case of NetApp, when the competition makes an issue about scalibility or performance of their flagship storage systems FAS and Ontap storage software, change the playing field leveraging all the tools in their portfolio. NetApp like EMC before them is figuring out how to sell via different channels or venues their complete portfolio with a mix of direct, channel and OEM. After all, it seems like only yesterday that EMC was trying to figure out where and when to sell CLARiiON (e.g. now VNX) as opposed to avoiding competing with the Symmetrix (aka now the VMAX) not to mention expanding from a direct to channel and OEM model. Perhaps NetApp can continue to figure out how to leverage more effectively the Engenio E series for big bandwidth beyond their current OEMs. NetApp can also leverage their existing partners who have embraced Bycast (aka StorageGrid) while finding new ones.

    The reality is that NetApp is being challenged by EMC who is moving down market into some of NetApp’s traditional accounts along with in the scale-out NAS and big data sectors. This is where NetApp can leverage their technical capabilities including people combined with some effective sales and marketing execution to change the playing field vs. responding to EMC and others.

    NetApp has many of the pieces, parts, products, people, programs and partners so now how can they leverage those to expand both their revenues, as well as support margin to grow the business, unless they are looking to be acquired.

    I still subscribe that NetApp and EMC are two similar companies on parallel tracks offset by time, by about a decade or decade and a half.

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Thus, IMHO NetApp is a diamond in the rough, granted I am guessing EMC and some others do not see it that way. However, there was a time when EMC was seen as a diamond in the rough while others discounted that notion, particularly an Itty Bitty Manufacturing company from New York who is now focusing on services among other things.

    Keep in mind however, diamonds can also be lost or taken as well as there can be fake gems.

    Here are some related links:
    Unified storage systems showdown: NetApp FAS vs. EMC VNX
    Two companies on parallel tracks moving like trains offset by time: EMC and NetApp
    NetApp buying LSI’s Engenio Storage Business Unit

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

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    Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    I recently saw a comment somewhere that talked about Green IT being deferred or set aside due to lack of funding because of ongoing global economic turmoil. For those who see Green IT in the context of the green washing efforts that requiring spending to gain some benefits that I can understand. After all, if your goal is to simply go and be or be seen as being green, there is a cost to doing that.

    With tight or shrinking IT budgets, there are other realities and while organizations may want to do the right thing helping the environment, however that is often seen as overhead to financial conscious management.

    On the other hand, turn the green washing messaging off or at least dial-it back a bit as has been the case the past couple of years.

    Expand the Green IT discussion or change it around a bit from that of being seen or perceived as being green by energy efficiency or avoidance to that of effectiveness, enhanced productivity, doing more with what you have or with less and there is a different opportunity.

    That opportunity is to meet the financial and business goals or requirements that as a by-product help the environment. In other words, expand the focus of Green IT to that of economics and improving on resource effectiveness and the environment gets a free ride, or, Green gets self-funded.

    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book addressing optimization, effectivness, productivity and economics

    The challenge is what I refer to as the Green Gap, which is the disconnect between what is talked about (e.g. messaging) and thus perceived to be Green IT and where common IT opportunities exist (or missed opportunities have occurred).

    Green IT or at least the tenants of driving efficiency and effectiveness to use energy more effectively, address recycling and waste, removable of hazardous substance and other items continues to thrive. However, the green washing is subsiding and overtime organizations will not be as dismissive of Green IT in the context of improving productivity, reducing complexity and costs, optimization and related themes tied to economics where the environment gets a free ride.

    Here are some related links:
    Closing the Green Gap
    Energy efficient technology sales depend on the pitch
    EPA Energy Star for Data Center Storage Update
    Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed!
    How to reduce your Data Footprint impact (Podcast)
    Optimizing storage capacity and performance to reduce your data footprint
    Performance metrics: Evaluating your data storage efficiency
    PUE, Are you Managing Power, Energy or Productivity?
    Saving Money with Green Data Storage Technology
    Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories
    Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency
    Storage Efficiency and Optimization: The Other Green
    Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
    The new Green IT: Efficient, Effective, Smart and Productive
    The other Green Storage: Efficiency and Optimization
    The Green and Virtual Data Center Book (CRC Press, Intel Recommended Reading)

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Why FC and FCoE vendors get beat up over bandwidth?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Have you noticed how Fibre Channel (FC) and FC over Ethernet (FCoE) switch and adapter vendors and their followers focus around bandwidth vs. response time, latency or other performance activity? For example, 8Gb FC (e.g. 8GFC), or 10Gb as opposed to latency and response time, or IOPS and other activity indicators.

    When you look at your own environment, or that of a customers or prospects or hear of a conversation involving storage networks, is the focus on bandwidth, or lack of it, or perhaps throughput being a non-issue? For example, a customer says why go to 16GFC when they are barely using 8Gb with their current FC environment.

    This is not a new phenomenon and is something I saw when working for a storage-networking vendor who had SAN, MAN and WAN solutions (E.g. INRANGE). Those with networking backgrounds tended to focus on bandwidth when discussing storage networks while those with storage, server or applications background also look at latency or IO completion time (response time), queuing, message size, IOPs or frames and packets per second. Thus there are different storage and networking metrics that matter that are also discussed further in my first book Resilient Storage Networks: Designing Flexible Scalable Data Infrastructures.

    When I hear a storage networking vendor talk about their latest 16GFC based product I like to ask them what is the biggest benefit vs. 8GFC and not surprisingly, the usual response is like twice the bandwidth. When I ask them about what that means in terms of more IOPS in a given amount of time, or reduced IO completion time, lower latency, sometimes I often get the response along the lines of Yeah, that too, however it has twice the bandwidth.

    Ok, I get it, yes, bandwidth is important for some applications, however so too are activity measured in IOPS, transactions, packets, frames, pages, sequences and exchanges among other units of measure along with response time and latency (e.g. different storage and networking metrics that matter).

    What many storage networking vendors actually get, however they don’t talk about it for various reasons, perhaps because they are not be asked about it, or engaged in the conversation is that there is an improvement in response time in going from such as 8GFC to 16GFC. Likewise, there can be improvements in response time in addition to the more commonly discussed bandwidth.

    If you are a storage networking switch, adapter or other component vendor, var or channel partner expand your conversation to include activity and response time as part of your value proposition. Likewise, if you are a customer, ask your technology providers to expand on the conversation of how new technologies help in areas other than bandwidth.

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Spring (May) 2012 StorageIO news letter

    StorageIO News Letter Image
    Spring (May) 2012 News letter

    Welcome to the Spring (May) 2012 edition of the Server and StorageIO Group (StorageIO) news letter. This follows the Fall (December) 2011 edition.

    You can get access to this news letter via various social media venues (some are shown below) in addition to StorageIO web sites and subscriptions.

    Click on the following links to view the Spring May 2012 edition as an HTML or PDF or, to go to the news letter page to view previous editions.

    You can subscribe to the news letter by clicking here.

    Enjoy this edition of the StorageIO newsletter, let me know your comments and feedback.

    Nuff said for now

    Cheers
    Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Various cloud, virtualization, server, storage I/O poll’s

    The following are a collection of on-going industry trends and perspectives poll’s pertaining to server, storage, IO, networking, cloud, virtualization, data protection (backup, archive, BC and DR) among other related themes and topics.

    In addition to those listed below, check out the comments section where additional poll’s are added over time.

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Here is a link to a poll as a follow-up to a recent blog post Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD? (also check these posts pertaining to storage arrays and SSD and flash SSD’s emerging role).

    Poll: Are large storage arrays day’s numbered?

    Poll: What’s your take on magnetic tape storage?

    Poll: What do you think of IT clouds?

    Poll: Who is responsible for cloud storage data loss?

    Poll: What are the most popular Zombie technologies?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Poll: What’s your take on OVA and other alliances?

    Poll: Where is most common form or concern of vendor lockin?

    Poll: Who is responsible for, or preventing vendor lockin?

    Poll: Is vendor lockin a good or bad thing?

    Poll: Is IBM V7000 relevant?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Poll: What is your take on EMC and NetApp on similar tracks or paths?

    Poll: What’s your take on RAID still being relevant?

    Poll: What do you see as barriers to converged networks?

    Poll: Who are you?

    Poll: What is your preferred converged network?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Poll: What is your converged network status?

    Poll: Are converged networks in your future?

    Poll: What do you think were top 2009 technologies, events or vendors?

    Poll: What technologies, events, products or vendors did not live up to 2009 predictions?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Poll: What do you think of IT clouds?

    Poll: What is your take on the new FTC blogger disclosure guidelines?

    Poll: Is RAID dead?

    Poll: When will you deploy Windows 7? Note: I upgraded all my systems to Windows 7 during summer of 2011

    Poll: EMC and Cisco VCE, what does it mean?

    Poll: Is IBM XIV still relevant?

    Storage I/O Industry Trends and Perspectives

    Note: Feel free to share, use and make reference to the above poll’s and their results however please remember to attribute the source.

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved

    Posted on

    Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be

    Storage I/O trends

    Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be

    In a recent conversation with Dave Raffo about the nand flash solid state disk (SSD) market, we talked about industry trends, perspectives and where the market is now as well as headed. One of my comments is, has been and will remain that the industry has still not reached anywhere near full potential for deployment of SSD for enterprise, SMB and other data storage needs. Granted, there is broad adoption in terms of discussion or conversation and plenty of early adopters.

    SSD and in particular nand flash is anything but dead, in fact in the big broad picture of things, it is still very early in the game. Sure, for those who cover and crave the newest, latest and greatest technology to talk about, nand flash SSD might seem old, yesterday news, long in the tooth and time for something else. However, for those who are focused on deployment vs. adoption such as customers, in general, nand flash SSD in its many packaging options has still not yet reached its full potential.

    Despite the hype, fanfare from CEOs or their evangelist along with loyal followers of startups that help drive industry adoption (e.g. what is talked about), there is still lots of upside growth in the customer drive industry deployment (actually buying, installing and using) for nand flash SSD.

    What about broad customer deployments?

    Sure, there are the marquee customer success stories that you need a high-capacity SAS or SATA drive to hold the YouTube videos, slide decks, press releases for.

    However, have we truly, reached broad customer deployment or broad industry adoption?

    Hence, I see more startups coming into the market space, and some exiting on their own, via mergers and acquisition or other means.

    Will we see a feeding frenzy or IPO craze as with earlier hype cycles of technologies, IMHO there will be some companies that get the big deal, some will survive as new players running as a business vs. running to be acquired or IPO. Others will survive by evolving into something else while others will join the where are they now list.

    If you are a SSD startup, CEO, CxO, or marketer, their PR, evangelist or loyal follower do not worry as the SSD market and even nand flash is far from being dead. On the other hand, if you think that it has hit its full stride, you are missing either the bigger picture, or too busy patting yourselves on the back for a job well done. There is much more opportunity out there and not even all the low hanging fruit has been picked yet.

    Check out the conversation with Dave Raffo along with comments from others here.

    Related links on storage IO metrics and SSD performance
    What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do
    Is SSD dead? No, however some vendors might be
    Storage and IO metrics that matter
    IO IO it is off to Storage and IO metrics we go
    SSD and Storage System Performance
    Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
    Are Hard Disk Drives (HDD’s) getting too big?
    Has SSD put Hard Disk Drives (HDD’s) On Endangered Species List?
    Why SSD based arrays and storage appliances can be a good idea (Part I)
    IT and storage economics 101, supply and demand
    Researchers and marketers dont agree on future of nand flash SSD
    EMC VFCache respinning SSD and intelligent caching (Part I)
    SSD options for Virtual (and Physical) Environments Part I: Spinning up to speed on SSD
    SSD options for Virtual (and Physical) Environments Part II: The call to duty, SSD endurance
    SSD options for Virtual (and Physical) Environments Part III: What type of SSD is best for you?
    SSD options for Virtual (and Physical) Environments Part IV: What type of SSD is best for your needs

    Ok, nuff said for now

    Cheers Gs

    Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)

    twitter @storageio

    All Comments, (C) and (TM) belong to their owners/posters, Other content (C) Copyright 2006-2012 StorageIO and UnlimitedIO All Rights Reserved