Dear Father Christmas or can I call you Uncle…(no I won't go there)
So you guys out on the west coast, you've had a pretty good year. I guess there a few things that you are Not Appy about but all in all, it's been a good one for you. But if you want it to be another good year, you might want to read my Christmas list for 2010. But perhaps a quick review of the year gone by might be good.
2009 was signposted as a big year for you guys for one reason, OnTap 8; it appears to have gestating for longer than most companies have been in the business. Even so you managed to keep us waiting even longer than most of us expected with it finally putting in an appearance end of August. Mixed reports so far and a lot of people waiting for 8.1; aint that always the way!!?
But even prior to that, you'd managed to get yourself in tug-of-love battle with the Boston Bruiser and to no-one's great surprise (apart from apparently your own), you lost. But as I said in my letter to other fella, perhaps the jam you were offering would have been tastier than theirs in the long term.
And as everyone else rushed to put SSDs in their arrays, you took a different approach; pretty much typical of you guys. Time will tell if you are right; WAFL has stood you well, perhaps PAM will do the same for you.
I guess like the other team, you've lost some key players over the year. Dan the Man obviously, but I miss Kostadis as well; great technical blogger. Tried to explain things unlike many others who just throw bluster around.
Lots of Cloud announcements as well, lots of partnerships; still not entirely sure what your Cloud offering is but I'm sure that will come clear over the next year.
And then in a tough market; you managed to pretty much buck the trend; good work all round!
Still next year I'd like…
SSDs; I would really like some clarity on your position with regards to SSDs. Are you going to do something with them? Are you going to rely on PAM to give you FAST like capabilities?
New toys; time to refresh that hardware platform. Intel sure do have some great processors and perhaps it's time for you to follow the herd on this one? And I worry for you guys and all your eggs in one basket, some diversification might not come amiss.
Like the other folks, do something with Virtual Appliances! Your simulator is pretty good, time to unleash it and stop hamstringing it. You could do yourselves alot of good and if you want to be different, Hyper-V and VMware versions would be good. No-one will buy the Hyper-V version but you'd stand out and your new buddies in Seattle will love you forever! And another thing, let it free and let the world get their hands on it.
A bit more focus on SanScreen wouldn't go amiss; potential there is going awasting. And the OnTap web interface could do with a tidy. And please, a decent client based CLI!
Cloud, lets see a proper Cloud offering…proper object file-systems. Like the other guys, lots of hot-air and no precipitation.
And just a little request, can every NotApper on Twitter stop retweeting every win!
Have a Great Christmas and New Year
Best Regards,
Storagebod
p.s just remember WAFL is a platypus not a filesystem!!
Even though we’re only the sequel in your “Father Christmas” series, we’re not offended Martin. Taking the time to blog about us in any regard shows that you care!
OTOH – I have to rush and re-tweet this blog, so I won’t have time for detailed responses except to say your wishlist reads like our 2010 roadmap. Oops, did I just write that? 🙂
Just remember that Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope….
Hi Martin,
Fully agree with you about SanScreen, worked a contract a number of months ago, where this was being used and it was fantastic. Slight learning curve, but once configured correctly was epic.
The big problem is the cost, it is astronomical! If Netapp lowered the price, and invested in some R&D, then this could be the automatic “go to” when thinking of SRM. But most big IT shops cannot justify that type of price, when some crafty Perl scripts, and XML can get you some of the same. Or you role together some type of spreadsheet based solution crafted from 6 different own vendor tools.
I can opportunities in automated provisioning of storage to virtual machines, integration with cloud based services, scripting automation, some kind of tie-in with low level data movement (e.g. Brocade DCFM). With the framework they already have in place, they could dominate the SRM arena. But instead the small-medium shops look to Tek-Tools.