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     Couldn’t make it to VMWorld this year for various reasons, but I have been eagerly listening in to all the chatter, social networking, and general fun being spewed across the internet.  There have been funny cartoons, funny videos, blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, etc.  The updates and news coverage is pretty great, but there has been one vendor’s daily updates that of course are self serving, which they should be, but are a brag about something 100% in their control.

     Not trying to launch a war here, but twitter man @HPStorageGuy, (who you should follow because he has some good thoughts when not bragging about LeftHand’s VSA)  Calvin Zito has been busy tweeting these past few days.  Typically he talks up the LeftHand Networks, now owned by HP, iSCSI storage solutions and other HP storage products.  Recently, Calvin has been bragging about how HP has the most VMWare HCL certified storage systems, server systems, and the ONLY virtual storage appliance that is certified.  Not sure everyone knows, but getting on VMWare’s HCL is an easy, but expensive task.  So, considering that all it takes is money and a little time, why brag about something like this? Regardless, Congratulations!!!  Also, Congratulations to RedHat for having the most certified OSs!!!

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I     n a recent announcement, Dell and Microsoft have a tight condensation going on.  Dell will be providing the hardware for Microsoft new cloud computing initiative.  Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud services operating system.  This will compromise a collection of services and hardware from Dell.

   Of course, when there is cloud computing, there are some pretty large storage requirements as well.  i wonder what the storage sub-systems will be behind these hosting center deployments.  Now I know Microsoft isn’t going to deploy and NFS solution!  Only time will tell, it looks like this is pretty early on in the planning stages.  The good part, is it looks like Dell will help make it a “greener” cloud.

Related articles:

• Microsoft gets official with Windows Azure cloud OS, platform
• Microsoft’s Cloud, Part 1: Defining The Cloud
• Who will own the cloud?
• Steve Ballmer gets cloudy

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StorageBod’s recent post had me falling over, both in it’s clear silliness, but more so in the extremely hidden un-known humor.  

File System: “ In computing, a file system (often also written as filesystem) is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. File systems may use a data storage device such as a hard disk or CD-ROM and involve maintaining the physical location of the files, they might provide access to data on a file server by acting as clients for a network protocol (e.g., NFS, SMB, or 9P clients), or they may be virtual and exist only as an access method for virtual data (e.g., procfs).

 

More formally, a file system is a special-purpose database for the storage, organization, manipulation, and retrieval of data.”

StorageBod wrote the following: 

“I’ve decided that after reading Kostadis’ interesting and well-written series on why WAFL is not a file-system; that it is a platypus! In much that same way that a Platypus is mostly mammalian but does some-things in a distinctly non-mammalian way; WAFL is mostly a file-system! 

 

So from now on; I shall be referring to WAFL as the Platypus Layer!”

Which is much funnier when I recalled and researched the history of the Platypus:

…“Aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers,” Knox noted, “the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art.”

 

It was only when more platypus specimens arrived in England that naturalists finally, grudgingly, granted that the creature was real….

So, clearly WAFL is here to stay, it is most commonly referred to as a filesystem, it clearly shows File System attributes, but…it also have some non-fi1l3 $y$t3m attributes as well. 

note: No Platypus were injured in the writing of this post, nor any WAFL users, nor NetApp employees.  This is a Green Post, no paper was used in its creation. 

Related articles:

• NetApp founder brushes off Sun threat
• Push and pull network filesystems with ccgfs
• Riverbed claims it will de-dupe primary storage

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     The iSCSI market has been in the spotlight for the past 12-18 months within the Storage Industry.  My first interaction with the iSCSI storage protocol as way back in 2001 and 2002.  I working on Professional Services offerings surrounding StorageTek’s EchoView product line.  This was one of the first iSCSI appliances on the market, and a first for a larger storage vendor, but was limited in functionality and targeted at data protection.  No matter how revolutionary iSCSI was earlier in the decade, it is this flurry of activity recently that has been interesting.

     Late 2007, Compellent went public, just 30 short days prior to Dell’s announcement to acquire Equallogic.  So, who was the Lion, with the huge impact to the iSCSI market?  Hard to say, too many factors, and way too close together to differentiate between the two acts in my opinion.  When comparing these two companies S-1 filings, there are differences, and since I’m not financial expert, you are welcome to look at them yourself, Compellent’s is here, and Equallogic’s is here.  Regardless, these two acts began a very interesting market effect.  LeftHand Networks launched a channel acquisition plan on Equallogic’s partners.  A very smart scavenging move by an iSCSI software company that was clearly about to be left behind.

     Now, in recent news, DataCore is actively going after LeftHand Network’s channel, in an active response to the recent HP announcement for the intention of acquiring LeftHand Networks.  This move seems very familiar, almost déjà vu.   Personally, this is great news, and puts a HUGE smile on my face, not because I personally lost any on my well protected Channel to LeftHand Networks last year, but because keeping my customer base happy and my partners loyal took extra effort during the transition time between acquisition announcement and acquisition close.

     So the scavengers circle, trying to pick off what is left of the iSCSI marketplace.  I say what is left, because, LeftHand’s market share in the iSCSI world was so low, both it and HP fall into the “other” category.

Related articles:

• Citrix aims at clouds with XenServer 5
• Strong demand for drives propels storage revenue
• Disk storage hits two-year growth high
• Dell Acquires EqualLogic For $1.4 Billion

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In a recent press release Phil Soran stated the following:

The LeftHand deal "…demonstrates legacy vendors’ approach to meeting the needs of the mid-sized enterprise market: buy someone else’s technology and try to fit it into an existing product portfolio, which leads customers to a rip-and-replace strategy as they grow," Soran said. "While this may be easier for the vendors than developing their own scalable architecture, it is certainly not better for customers."

     Seems like Mr. Soran either never read The Innovator’s Dilemma, or forgot what it was about.  The idea of “disruptive innovations” and large corporations purchasing new technologies rather then attempting to development internally, or the idea that a technology market that was previously not profitable or served will turn into a growth area for revenue and margin.

     The idea of HP buying into a storage software company like LeftHand Networks, and passing on the “Bridesmaid” Compellent, who is also firmly in the storage software market (Compellent’s product is a storage software cluster installed on a SuperMicro 3U server pair), is just poor luck, maybe Compellent should have used HP’s server platform rather then SuperMicro.  The idea of HP buying LeftHand Networks just shows the basic premise of Clayton M. Christensen.

     I think the scariest thing for the “Compellent”s of the world (small public storage up-starts) is the current state of the economy and trading markets.  Single product companies need to continue to expand product lines and execute during economic lows.  The best exit strategy for both LeftHand Networks and Equallogic, Inc. were to be purchased.  In recent financial news for Compellent, analysts are already lowering the expected target price for Compellent.

Related articles:

• Dennis Whittle: Innovators’ Dilemma in Philanthropy and Aid
• "Innovator’s Guide to Growth": Readable, Productive Prescriptions for Disruptive Innovation
• E-books: A Textbook Case
• Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christensen
• HP to buy LeftHand Networks for storage virtualization, iSCSI