So Symantec have decided to enter the world of Cloud Storage; I'm not sure that simply packaging up a Linux Software appliance with some clustering actually counts but it was inevitable; if it was not packaged as Cloud, it would have been packaged as a basic NAS offering.
Realistically, Symantec needed to do something as NAS is a huge problem to them; if I go NAS, then I don't need VxFS and VVM. Even in their core Solaris market, ZFS will start to damage them. The volume manager as a standalone product is becoming an irrelevance. I've no idea what the penetration is in the Windows server markets but I doubt it is high.
Then there is Veritas Cluster Services; if I use virtualisation technologies such as VMware, then the clustering is part of the Hypervisor and I don't need VCS. Oracle RAC replaces the need at the high-end where VCS had a lot of it's core deployments protecting Oracle databases.
And I'm not sure what impact NetBackUp 6 has had on Symantec's share of the back-up market but it has been a poor release; both 6 and 6.5 have undergone patch after patch with problems always being fixed at the next patch level.
But Filestore is lauching into an increasingly crowded market-place and just comes across as a 'me too' product; I think Symantec are going to struggle with this one, it currently lacks features and it's price point is not as attractive it might be. I see some very tough times ahead for the Enterprise Software side of Symantec; the market's moved and I'm not sure that they can offer me enough.
Well it was inevitable that vendors would start selling “cloud” branded solutions, don’t you think?
As much as I’d like to believe CA or Symantec are great companies, I really see them as the leaders in the mega consolidators. Has either of them invented their own software, vs acquiring someone else?
I’ve yet to have the opportunity to play with Oracle’s virtualization solutions, though I did spend manage a RAC for my companies multiple DBs. The simplicity of how a RAC works is as simple as a VMware & vice versa.
We also ran NetBackup(from pre Symantec till post); it’s a huge bloated beast. Which should be rewritten from scratch. It was base-lined to a computer system which is now 15+ years old; & thus isn’t updated to newer system benefits. (I know a few ERPs like that as well)
Where Filestor will succeed is the small to (newly)medium size companies; which are cheap, out of date(technically), & guided by buzzwords. [I worked with a company(we acquired them); which had 6 IBM AS/400s; only because they were not aware that they could partition them & thus each ran a different software(for a company of 1,000)]